Customer Reviews

The Official Guide to Rootsweb.com

5 star:		(3)
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I found the book extremely useful and easy to read. I've used Rootsweb for over 10 years now, but this book has allowed me to explore other areas of the site that I didn't know existed. I highly recommend it to every genealogist out there.

This was a very quick read but had lots of helpful information if one is new to Rootsweb. I'm glad I bought it. Good reference.

RootsWeb.com is a book which guide you on this web site. Helping you to understand what it has to offer and where and how to find it. For the person beginning their family history this book would be very helpful. The RootWeb.com web site has some excellent research links as well as information to help the researcher. An excellent book to read before beginning that research.

I am of two minds when it comes to an "official guide" to any site on the World Wide Web. First, a website can consist of as many pages as necessary to cover the subject, and there can be as many interconnections between pages as necessary to guide the user. Second, the nature of hyperlinking is such that any properly designed website shouldn't need a guide. It should be so logically organized that navigation is obvious, and it should include its own internal "help" system. At least, that's the theory. In practice, even a site as generally well designed as Ancestry (and it is well designed) can eventually become so large, with so many layers, that it can be daunting even to an experienced genealogical web surfer.

RootsWeb is now part of the Ancestry empire but it had a long history as an independent genealogical site before that, dating back to the mid-1980s, before the World Wide Web existed. Rather than providing actual research materials, RootsWeb became a place to exchange information, make contact with other genealogists, subscribe to email discussion lists (especially ROOTS-L and its subsidiary lists), post to surname and locality message boards, and post personal databases. The site also made space available, for free, to individuals, local societies, and family associations to establish their own websites. Ancestry is to be applauded for deciding to keep RootsWeb a free site, unlike Ancestry itself. Myra Gormley is a Certified Genealogist and a well known author and conference speaker; Lord appears to be a technical writer who is presently Editorial Manager for the Generations Network. Like the companion guide to Ancestry, the chapters follow the structure of the RootsWeb site, one to each function noted above, and because RootsWeb is a much smaller site than Ancestry, the book is much thinner.

I can recommend this volume to anyone new to the websites it describes, although most of what is available on the site can be discovered simply by "walking around." It would especially make a good auxiliary gift if you're planning on giving someone in your family a gift subscription to Ancestry for Christmas.

The Official Guide to Ancestry.com This book is a definite must for any genealogist, professional or otherwise, to have in their library. At the same time I must say that I was a little disappointed. This book desperately needed a good editor. The organization of the book was questionable and some items were not written with clarity. It came across to me as somewhat amateurish. What is needed on this subject is a "For Dummies" book. That kind of book would be extremely helpful and more objective in my opinion.

I've been doing genealogical research since the early 70s and have used Rootsweb.com since its inception. I, however, did not realize all the things that were there that I was missing. I sat down with this book and went step-by-step, learning so much as I went. So excited to finally have this book!