1. First Click the link below for 40% off and add the product to your cart, it will show a 40% off Price of $23.97.
2. Then Enter the coupon G5JXTRY at checkout in the box marked Redeem Coupons for 20% off that price which should show a total of $19.18.
3. 40% off Family Tree Maker 2011 Link

I need to mention that in Q3 they will be releasing their first Mac version of Family Tree Maker! So now Mac users will be able to finally use the program. More Detail can be found at http://www.ftm2011.com

These are the enhancements listed by Ancestry:

• Smart Stories™— Just drag and drop facts from your tree to the new Smart Stories page. Each time you edit your tree, stories update automatically.
• New and improved charts—Enhance your charts with new backgrounds, borders, and embellishments. Create four new designs, including a 360 degree fan chart.
• Refined reports—Save and reuse report settings and use 5 new report styles.
• Media management tools—Locate missing media items with the click of the mouse.
• More Ancestry integration—Find out which Ancestry members are searching for your ancestors in the expanded Web Dashboard.
• Better performance—Upload and download trees from the Internet with increased speed.
• Numbering—Automatically number every person in your tree for quick reference.
• Timelines—View more events that occurred during your ancestors’ lives. Even edit, delete or add your own historical events..
• Easy-to-use tools for merging duplicate individuals, calculating dates, creating to-do lists, and more.

And don’t forget the features you’ve come to rely on:

• Dynamic user interface that lets you quickly switch between important features.
• The ability to import data from other genealogy programs, including Personal Ancestral File, The Master Genealogist, and Legacy Family Tree.
• Powerful sourcing tools that let you document AND rate each of your citations.
• Interactive maps and lists that give you a bird’s-eye view of where members of your family come from.
• Photo AND file management features so you can easily incorporate all types of media files into your charts and reports.
• Timelines that highlight personal, family, and world events.
• Easy-to-use tools for merging duplicate individuals, calculating dates, creating to-do lists, and more.

Use Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker together to get the most out of both:

• Search the extensive record collections at Ancestry.com without ever leaving your family tree! And, when you find new records, you can quickly merge them into your tree.
• Take advantage of Ancestry Hints-Family Tree Maker automatically suggests records that may match people in your tree.
• Import your Ancestry.com family tree, along with attached photos.
• Upload your tree to Ancestry.com and connect with millions of other family historians across the world.

Build your family tree. Preserve your family legacy. Millions of people have used Family Tree Maker, the #1 selling genealogy software, to discover and share their family stories. Now, with dozens of new features the latest version makes it easier than ever to explore your roots.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting on your family tree, Family Tree Maker 2010 can help you create a family tree faster, easier, and better than ever before. The end result is a family history that you and your family will treasure for years to come.

Family Tree Maker 2010, the #1 selling family history software, can help you easily discover, organize and preserve your family history on your personal computer and share it in many creative ways. Once you’ve started your tree, you can add photos, video, audio and more. You can also create and print a variety of interactive maps, timelines, charts and reports. Family Tree Maker 2010 includes a one-month subscription to Ancestry.com the world’s largest online collection of family history resources, featuring over 7 billion historical records. Search for your ancestors and use what you discover in your tree.

Family Tree Maker makes it easy to discover your story, preserve your legacy and share your unique heritage as you explore your family tree on your personal computer. Family Tree Maker 2010 introduces even more rich storytelling and organization tools that can add new life to your family history.

Once you’ve started your tree, you can add photos, video, audio and more. You can also create and print a variety of interactive maps, timelines, charts and reports. Family Tree Maker 2010 also includes a subscription to Ancestry.com–the world’s largest online collection of family history resources, featuring more than 4 billion historical records. Search for your ancestors and use what you discover on Ancestry.com in your tree.

How can you make the most of Ancestry.com?

• Your software works seamlessly with Ancestry.com so you can easily search for your ancestors and add the information you discover to your tree.
• You could find missing facts about your family in census records, draft cards, passenger lists, image collections and other historical resources.

Use Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker together. Get the most from both.

• Search the extensive record collections at Ancestry.com without ever leaving your family tree. Quickly merge new records you find into your tree.
• Take advantage of Ancestry Hints. Family Tree Maker automatically suggests records that may match people in your tree.
• Share heirloom-quality books and attractive posters that you create with the self-publishing tool at Ancestry.com.

ORDER Family Tree Maker 2010 Now!

Upgrade to Family Tree Maker 2010 – Current users of Family Tree Maker qualify to get the latest version at the best possible upgrade price (30% discount). Family Tree Maker 2010 can help you create a family tree faster, easier, and better than ever before. The end result is a family history that you and your family will treasure for years to come.

UPGRADE Family Tree Maker 2010 Now!

See What’s in Family Tree Maker 2010:

General Features

• Enhanced integration with Ancestry.com – Import your Ancestry.com family tree, along with attached photos.
• Improved organization – Enjoy new ways to organize photos and other media.
• Slideshows – Create slideshows from photos in your tree.
• Family books – Publish beautiful keepsakes and books to share with friends and family.
• Standard source templates – Cite the right information every time.
• A new person view – View relationships within the context of your entire family tree.
• Scanner support – Add photos directly from your scanner.
• Family migration paths – View timelines and interactive maps highlighting events and places in your ancestors’ lives.
• Better Performance – Experience faster load times and navigation.
• See a detailed product feature list

Product Highlights:

• A dynamic user interface that lets you quickly switch between important features.
• The ability to import data from other genealogy programs, including Personal Ancestral File, The Master Genealogist, and Legacy Family Tree.
• A Web Search that is integrated with Ancestry.com so you can easily add records and images from the millions of available historical records.
• Attractive charts and reports in a variety of formats.
• The ability to add photos and audio and video files to your tree.
• Timelines and interactive maps.
• Powerful sourcing tools that let you document—and rate—each citation.

Bonus Features:

• Significant world events may be added to individual’s timelines that will help you get a glimpse of what may have shaped their lives. To ease this process; wars, natural disasters, and monumental events are organized by year listing the individual’s age at the time of occurrence.
• Merging data will be easier for you by using the Web clipper to retrieve online information concerning your family members.
• To help you get a feel for what the locations really look like, there is a 3D option that allows you to see the height of buildings and other surrounding objects. This will help you feel like you are really there, but will save you the price of a plane ticket.

Family Tree Maker 2010 lets you easily:

• Organize your family story privately and conveniently on your personal computer.
• Create charts and reports in a variety of formats to share with friends and family.
• Discover new information anywhere on the web and add it to your tree instantly.
• Integrate with the 4 billion names in historical records on Ancestry.com. Even receive hints linking you to matching records.
• Incorporate photos, documents and audio, video and other files into your tree.
• View timelines and interactive maps.

What’s new in Family Tree maker 2010?

• New tools and charts that help you tell a richer story
• Better ways to organize photos and other media
• Create slideshows from the images in your tree
• Family books made from your tree
• Standard source templates that help you reference the right information
• A view of your relation to everyone in your tree
• Extended family birthday calendars
• Images scanned directly into your tree
• Family migration paths over time
• Easy family tree download from Ancestry.com

The features you’ve come to rely on:

• Dynamic user interface that lets you quickly switch between important features
• The ability to import data from other genealogy programs, including Personal Ancestral File
• Powerful sourcing tools that let you document AND rate each of your citations
• Interactive maps and lists that give you a bird’s-eye view of where members of your family come from
• Place authority database of more than 3 million names that helps you standardize your place entries
• Photo AND file management features so you can easily incorporate all types of media files into your charts and reports
• Timelines that highlight personal, family and world events
• Easy-to-use tools for merging duplicate individuals, calculating dates, creating to-do lists and more

FTM2010 Review

Family Tree Maker 2010 is a program designed to assist those of any age in doing family research. The workspace is easy to navigate and provides the user with a wide variety of tools to create a detailed family tree. The majority of the work will be done on the People Workspace. From this screen you can do three things: customize an individual’s profile, view a list of all the names currently entered and view the family tree chart. When shared facts are in play, the software will link the information with all of the individuals who are associated with it, such as viewing both spouses in a marriage. To aid the user in entering correct information, Family Tree Maker has an automated system that will alert you of any duplicate records or unlikely dates.

By registering to Ancestry.com, the user will be able to do family research online. This opens up many opportunities to find sources throughout the world. However, there is no guarantee that the information will match the family member exactly. To prevent this problem from occurring, a rating scale from one to five has been installed to give the source credibility. A green leaf is an icon that will appear on the name of people that have more information available through the genealogical sources online. When you find facts of your family members through the web, you can simply click and drag the information on to the workspace and it will automatically link as a source.

As your family tree becomes larger, you may want to use the Places Workspace. This allows you to review all of the locations that are linked to your family members. A simple click on the location will reveal all the facts associated with that site such as marriages, deaths or births. The map is powered by Microsoft Bing. It may be viewed in three different ways; road map, satellite photograph (Bird’s Eye), or a combination of the two.

Ease of Use

With help boxes at every step, Family Tree Maker has a layout and design that will aid any person through their genealogy research no matter how much experience they may or may not have. Already have a family tree set up with another program? No problem. You can import it into Family Tree Maker. The people workspace is a unique feature that is not found with other genealogy software that allows you to have a combined view of the family and pedigree. Even beginning genealogists will find themselves very comfortable in using Family Tree Maker.

Reporting & Publishing

There are a wide variety of charts and reports to choose from when printing. Some of the charts to choose from are these:

1. Pedigree
2. Descendant
3. Relationship

To create a personalized chart there are a variety of backgrounds to choose from. For example you may choose a mountain meadow scene, an image of old-town England or you can use your own photo. A picture of your family member may be placed next to their name that will create a meaningful display of your ancestors. Within minutes, you will have an artistic family chart that will be enjoyed by all ages.

Reports can be created for people, relationships, places, media and sources. You may also publish books. Doing so will require that you visit Ancestry Press, the online publishing site.

Help/Documentation

By visiting FamilyTreeMaker.com, you will have access to a number of tutorials that can walk you through all of the latest features. You will receive a full length DVD with your software. Built-in prompts will aid you along your path as you create your family history. Online, you can search through the knowledge base for helpful hints of any subject and if that doesn’t help you, there is customer service contact information provided.

Summary:

Family Tree Maker 2010 is a wonderfully designed program with a database that will inspire any genealogist. The cost is not in the software, but in the membership to Ancestry.com. Whether you are just beginning or have plenty of experience, you will find this software far superior to the other programs. It is fast and easy. Its unique design will get you well on your way to a better understanding of your heritage, and you will find that there are no limits when it comes to ancestry, especially when you are working with Family Tree Maker 2010. Check out our top ranked genealogy software packages for more options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will FTM 2010 run on my computer?

Your computer must meet the minimum system requirements in order to run the program. A list of system requirements can be found here. By going to the Start menu and selecting the Help option, you can search for “About this computer” to find your system information to compare to the list on the Web site.

Will FTM 2010 replace my old version?

No. Family Tree Maker 2010 will install as a completely separate program and will not affect your old program. If you do not want to keep your old version you will need to uninstall it.

Do I need to install FTM 2009 before I can upgrade to FTM 2010?

No. Because FTM 2010 installs as a separate program you can upgrade to 2010 directly, without having to install any older software.

Will FTM 2010 automatically open my files from the old version?

This depends on which version you’re upgrading from. If you’re upgrading from version 2008 or 2009, your old file names will appear in your list of trees. Then opening the files will convert them to the new format. If you’re upgrading from an older version (Version 16 or older) you will need to import your files into the new program. Here are the instructions on how to upload your files from an older version, or how to import files from other programs to your new Family Tree Maker.

When I import my file will it get ALL of the data?

Family Tree Maker 2010 will import all of the data contained in the file you are importing. If you have multiple files in the old program to represent different families, you will have to import each one separately.

I can’t find my files from the old version to import them. Where are they?

You can use either your old version’s Find file utility or use Windows Search to locate the files on your computer. The details can be found here.

FTM 2010 won’t import my file from version 4 or earlier, or won’t open a compressed backup file from a floppy disk or CD. What can I do?

Use the FTM 2005 Starter Edition as a go-between: This download will open the older files and then be able to save them in a format that is compatible with the new program.

My old version is on a different computer. How can I transfer the file to my new computer?

By exporting your old files to an external drive, you can transfer your files from one computer to another. Detailed instructions for this can be found here.

Do I need to keep my old version on the computer after upgrading?

No. Once you have imported your data files into FTM 2010 you can uninstall your old version, it is not required for FTM 2010 to operate. Removing your older version is optional, but doing so will leave more memory available for use on your computer. Even if you remove your old program, you can keep your old data files for safekeeping.

I imported my files, but I don’t know where they are now. Where does FTM 2010 store the data files?

The default save location is in a Family Tree Maker folder in your Documents folder. Any imported files will be here unless you changed the File Location on the import screen. If your files are not in your Documents folder and you don’t remember if you changed the File Location or what you changed it to, you can use Windows Search to locate the files. The search tool can be found under the Start menu on your computer.

How can I make FTM 2010 look like my old program?

Family Tree Maker 2010 is built on our new platform, which has many similarities to the older versions but looks quite different. The People workspace, Family tab is a combined Pedigree View and Family View from the old programs.

I need help working in the new format. Are there any tutorials available?

There are Training Tutorials available in the Help menu and a Getting Started Guide available on our website to help you get started working in the new format.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

Minimum system requirements:

• Operating system: Windows XP / Vista
• Processor: 500 MHz Intel Pentium II (or equivalent)
• Hard disk space: 460 MB for installation
• Memory: 512 MB of RAM
• 2X CD-ROM (required for installation)
• Display: 800 x 600 resolution for monitor

Recommended system requirements:

• Operating system: Windows XP SP2/Vista
• Processor: 1GHz Intel Pentium III (or equivalent)
• Hard disk space: 460 MB for installation
• Memory: 1 GB of RAM
• Display: 1024 x 768 resolution for monitor
• 32X CD/CD-R (required for installation)
• All online features require Internet access

Leave a Comment and tell everyone what you think about Family Tree Maker 2010…..

An act of 3 March 1879 provided that any state could take an interdecennial census with partial reimbursement by the federal government. Colorado, Florida, Nebraska, and the territories of Dakota and New Mexico returned schedules to the secretary of the interior. The schedules are numbered 1, 2, 3, and 5.

• Schedule No. 1: Inhabitants Lists the number of dwellings and families. It also identifies each inhabitant by name, color, sex, age, relationship to head of family, marital status, occupation, place of birth, place of birth of parents, literacy, and kind of sickness or disability, if any.
• Schedule No. 2: Agriculture Gives the name of the farm owner and his tenure, acreage, farm value, expenses, estimated value of farm products, number and kind of livestock, and amount and kind of produce.
• Schedule No. 3: Products of industry Lists the name of the owning corporation or individual, name of business or products, amount of capital invested, number of employees,wages and hours, number of months in operation during the year, value of materials used, value of products, and amount and type of power used.
• Schedule No. 5: Mortality Lists the name, age, sex, color, marital status, place of birth, place of birth of parents, and occupation, and gives the cause of death for every person who died within the year ending 31 May 1885.

The schedules are interfiled and arranged alphabetically by state and then by county. Schedules for a number of counties are missing. The National Archives has microfilmed the Colorado (M158, eight rolls) and Nebraska (M352, fifty-six rolls) schedules.The originals are in the National Archives.

The 1885 census is useful for locating data about individuals who were living on rapidly growing frontiers: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Florida, and North and South Dakota; for locating and documenting newly arrived immigrants from Europe; and for documenting small businessmen and farmers—many of them immigrants—who were just getting started in their businesses. The manufacturers schedule for 1885 is the latest one available for research.

• Use the new extended family chart
• Keep track of important dates in the new calendar
• Take advantage of new data entry enhancements
• Clarify the process of citing sources with new source templates
• Create family history books and more with the new desktop book–building tools

There will be a 20–minute Q&A session afterward. They will also be answering questions that have been submitted from the Family Tree Maker community. To submit a question, please visit the Family Tree Maker blog.

Speakers will be Duff Wilson, the Senior User Interface Designer for Family Tree Maker, and  Michelle Pfister (the Moderator), the Senior Product Manager. Hopefully this will answer some of the many Questions we as consumers and users have. But you have to register on their site in order to attend the Webinar at https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=135327

This upgrade is FREE to all Family Tree Maker 2009 owners. With this latest update, you”ll be pleased to find a robust set of new and enhanced features. This new update includes the following new features and enhancements:

• BOOK BUILDING – You can once again create family history books compiled from charts, reports, and text documents.
• DATA ENTRY FLOW – You can now more easily enter information about your family in the Family view using the keyboard. Simply press Ctrl+Enter to navigate to and add or edit the next person in the family.
• SOURCE TEMPLATES – When entering a source, users can continue to use our traditional source functionality. Or they can use templates that follow the “QuickCheck” models. You can also migrate data from a source you”ve already created to a new source template.
• CALENDAR REPORT – The Calendar Report is back! It includes options for setting colors and including birthdays and/or anniversaries.
• CUSTOM REPORT – The custom report will now allow you to export the report to a “columned” format when exported to CSV so that it can be brought into a spreadsheet program for sorting.
• EXTENDED FAMILY CHART – The new Extended Family Chart shows the people in your tree aligned horizontally by generation. You can specify how many ancestor and descendant generations to include. This chart is not a replacement for the “All-in-one” chart although it can display everyone in your tree. We plan to add the All-in-One chart in a future release.
• CHART/REPORT LABEL OPTIONS From most chart and reports, select any fact in the “Items to Include” dialog and click the fact options button (below the list of facts). It now includes options for how you want that fact”s label to appear in your chart or report.

Family Tree Maker 2009 owners should receive an automatic update. If by chance they do not receive an update they can manually download it from the link destination below.

I received my email last night to upgrade to the new Family Tree Maker 2009 in an email which stated in part:

We’re pleased to provide you with a FREE upgrade to the newest version of Family Tree Maker. Thank you for your patience, helpful comments and suggestions. We’ve come a long way over the last year, and we want you to enjoy all the latest additions and improvements at no cost.

When I clicked on the link I got a server overload message. So i decided to sleep on it and try again this morning.

Well this morning I tried it again and now I get this message

Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later. Thank you, The Generations Network, Inc.

This is not a great start to Family Tree Maker 2009, especially after all the bad reviews out there with the previous version, Family Tree Maker 2008. So I can’t say yet whether it is a great, bad or average product yet. Hopefully some of you were able to download this upgrade and have been playing around with it. Let me know how it is.

I have heard this is a much greater improvement over ftm2008. Here are some of the stated improvements.

General Features

• Streamline your data entry with one-click editing of individuals from any workspace in the software
• Enjoy faster startup times and improved file performance
• Find your ancestors more easily with improved Web Search. You can even choose to ignore irrelevant results.

New Reports:

• Genealogy reports (Register and Ahnentafel, both full and simplified)
• Data errors report
• Enhancements to many reports
• Hourglass
• Vertical pedigree chart
• Horizontal hourglass chart
• Bow tie chart
• 180–degree fan chart
• Family tree charts
• You can also use custom templates or design your own

New Functionality within Publishing

• Book layouts for main charts
• Saved settings in charts/reports
• Saved templates in charts
• Ability to show siblings within charts
• Single page PDF export from charts
• Enhancements to the RTF export
• Ability to add boxes in charts to “Marked Box” category and modify box settings
• Preparer information in chart footers

Source Improvements

• Simplify sourcing with “cut and paste” source citations

Improved Data–Manipulation Tools

• Change place name tool
• Find–and–replace dialog
• Edit person dialog, streamlining data entry from any workspace
• Spouse order setting in the person menu
• Ability to set the media order on a person
• Find Individual Dialog
• Find Duplicate Person Dialog
• Fact Data Options Dialog that allows for:
  • Ability to change fact types
  • Ability to move description to place or place to description
  • Ability to make information private
• Symbols in text fields

Improvements within Research tools

• Ability to ignore hints
• Option to delete existing facts in individual and web merge
• Inclusion of married name, AKA and titles in index
• Automatic simple backup at shutdown

Import Improvements

• OLE objects (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF) from previous FTM versions
• Improved name parsing
• Import previously ignored hints lists

Place Improvements

• Place map toolbar that allows free text place searches
• Pinpoint places such as libraries, churches and courthouses
• Track — and print — your ancestors’ migration paths on interactive maps with the new Places timeline

So take a look at Family Tree Maker 2009 yourself and when i can get it i will let you know what I think.

UPDATE 09/12/2008!

I just received an email back from Ancestry on the issue of the broken upgrade link:

I am so sorry for the inconvenience.  Apparently there was such an incredible response to the email and everyone was responding to it at the same time so it caused this error.  You should be receiving another email later today with instructions along with another code so you can upgrade for free.

Well I will be watching…….

UPDATE 09/14/2008!

Still no new update email. I looked to make sure this was not April 1st. I am still looking for someone who has actually gotten the program and has given it a test run…..

UPDATE 09/16/2008!

I got my email yesterday and it worked! But the upgrade is not a download so now I have to wait until I receive it in the snail mail. But at least it is on the way… I hope

So today honor those who died. Thats what today is for.

History from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances eventually coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard & built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard – a very daring thing to do in the South shortly after North’s victory. On May 30, 1887? the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they’d picked from the countryside & decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the 1st Decoration Day. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter, and because it is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth.

General Logan had been impressed by the way the South honored their dead with a special day and decided the Union needed a similar day. Reportedly, Logan said that it was most fitting; that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had honored their dead, particularly their heroes, by chaplets of laurel and flowers, and that he intended to issue an order designating a day for decorating the grave of every soldier in the land, and if he could he would have made it a holiday.

Logan had been the principal speaker in a citywide memorial observation on April 29, 1866, at a cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois, an event that likely gave him the idea to make it a national holiday. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization, Logan issued a proclamation that “Decoration Day” be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance of this day.

Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were very few veterans of the Union Army who lived in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866 at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.

The alternative name of “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882, but did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967 . On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend and for the first time recognized Columbus Day as a federal holiday. The holidays included Washington’s Birthday (which evolved into Presidents’ Day), Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971 . After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply at the state level, all fifty states adopted the measure within a few years, although Veterans Day was eventually changed back to its traditional date. Ironically, most corporate businesses no longer close on Columbus Day or Veterans Day, and an increasing number are staying open on President’s Day as well. Memorial Day, however, has endured as one holiday during which most businesses stay closed because it marks the beginning of the “summer vacation season,” as does neighboring Canada’s Victoria Day, which occurs just before, on the third Monday in May.

They list some of their Feature Databases which are:

• U.S. Navy Cruise Books – Yearbook-style books detailing sailors and others on board U.S. navy ships, dating from 1940
• WWII Missing in Action or Lost at Sea – More than 80,000 names of Military Personnel reported Missing in Action or Buried at Sea during WWII
• Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, 1879-1903 – Details for more than 166,000 gravestones provided by the government for deceased Union veterans
• U.S. War Bounty Land Warrants – Over 76,000 Bounty land warrants issued between 1789-1858 to veterans of the U.S. Revolutionary War and the War of 1812
• U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 – Records detailing personal information about men who enlisted in the U.S. Army from 1798-1914
• World War I Draft Registration Cards – Draft registration cards for more than 24 million men who registered for the WWI draft in 1917 and 1918
• World War II Draft Registration Cards – Almost 6 million draft cards of men who registered for the fourth WWII draft in 1942
• U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records – Collection of more than 8 million names of U.S. Army enlistees during WWII, 1938-1946
• U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 – Collection of military service records, containing more than 6 million names of servicemen – Union and Confederate – who fought in the U.S. Civil War, 1860-1865
• U.S. Veterans Gravesites ca. 1775-2006 – Burial and grave site information for almost 3.5 million veterans of the U.S. military, 1775-2006

Obviously they have many more databases span all the Major conflicts the U.S. has been in. It is well worth the time to browse their stuff while it is open to the public.

While the CC’s maintain the pages its really the users that donate material and money to the rootsweb project that really makes people come back to rootsweb time and time again. Apparently the donations that kept rootsweb free to the public dried up and things changed in a hurry.

RootsWeb.com had been growing in popularity for many years since it began in 1993. It started as a RootsWeb Surname List. Then a search engine, obituary lists, message boards, an ancestry search-engine list, volunteer genealogy projects, calendars, and other things were added over the years.

While the popularity grew, so did the expenses and cost. In 1996, RootsWeb began accepting donations from researchers to help support the Web site but the donations did not grow as fast as the expenses, and the non-profit operation was facing a bleak financial picture. The Generations Network (formerly MyFamily.com), which owns Ancestry.com, acquired RootsWeb in June 2000. Many people thought this to be a win-win situation and others thought it to be the first step to adding all the free information on rootsweb to Ancestry’s pay sites. The marriage seems to have been working out great and hushing the naysayers.

But earlier this year though, the decision was made to move Rootsweb to the Ancestry.com servers with the stated goal of making it easier for users of the two genealogy sites to access both resources. Here is the announcement to the CC’s:

RootsWeb Announcement Thursday, March 13, 2008

As you know, The Generations Network has hosted and funded the RootsWeb online community since June 2000, thereby maintaining RootsWeb as the world’s oldest and largest free genealogy website. TGN remains committed to this mission and believes that RootsWeb is an absolutely invaluable and complementary resource to Ancestry.com, our flagship commercial family history site. We believe in both services and want to see both communities prosper and grow.

As part of this goal, we have decided to “transplant” RootsWeb onto the Ancestry.com domain beginning next week. This move will not change the RootsWeb experience or alter the ease of navigation to or within RootsWeb. RootsWeb will remain a free online experience. What will be different is that the Web address for all RootsWeb pages will change from www.rootsweb.com to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Again, the RootsWeb experience is not changing.

The decision to host RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is being made for one primary reason: we believe that the users of each of our two main websites can be better served if they have access to the best services available on both. Simply stated, we want to introduce more Ancestry.com users to RootsWeb and vice versa.

Today, despite the fact that Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com are the two most frequently visited family history sites on the Web, only 25 percent of visitors to Ancestry.com visited RootsWeb in January 2008, while only 20 percent of visitors to RootsWeb visited Ancestry.com (according to Comscore Media Metrix). We think we will serve our users best by doing a better job of letting them know what is available on both Ancestry.com and RootsWeb. Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is the first step towards making this happen, but we will absolutely look for more and better ways down the road to advance this goal.

Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com will also make it easier for us to make changes and improvements to the RootsWeb experience in the future.

All old RootsWeb URLs will continue to work, whether they are bookmarks or favorites, links to or from a hosted page or URLs manually typed in your Internet browser. We will have a redirect in place so that all old URLs will automatically end up on the appropriate new RootsWeb URL. You will never need to update your old favorites or links unless you want to. We have worked to make the transition as seamless as possible for our users, and this change should have a minimal impact on your experience with the site.

RootsWeb will remain a free online experience dedicated to providing you with a place where our community can find their roots together. If you have questions regarding this change please email them to feedback@rootsweb.com.

Thanks,
Tim Sullivan, CEO, The Generations Network, Inc.

This has brought the naysayers back out of the woodwork. Basically at the top of every rootsweb hosted page is basically and ad for ancestry.com. The question is if this is ok to do. After all TGN actually pays for the servers that host the free rootsweb sites so don’t have a right to place a little something up there for there trouble. On the surface I would say yes. But many CC’s do not see it that way and a great many of them have moved there sites off of the Ancestry servers to their own personal or donated servers so the county site will not show an ad by ancestry.com. about 90% of the maillist I am a member of have already sent their new urls to the list audience. Are most of the others doing the same? I bet they are.

So what happens when TGN realizes that half (which is just a guess, could be more and could be less) of the County pages have moved. Will they care? or will there be retribution against the “rebel” CC’s. I don’t know but I guess we will all find out soon enough.