RootsWeb.com kicks off WorldConnect

SHAKING YOUR FAMILY TREE

By MYRA VANDERPOOL GORMLEY

Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Just a month ago RootsWeb.com (www.rootsweb.com/), the Internet's oldest and largest genealogy site, launched WorldConnect, a free GEDCOM (genealogical data communication) hosting project.

"In the four weeks of its beta test period, users uploaded more than 5.5 million names to WorldConnect," said Brian Leverich, founder and chairman of the board of RootsWeb.com Inc. Today it has more than 10 million names and is growing daily.

GEDCOM is a standard file format developed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), which enables the exchange of information among genealogy software programs. GEDCOMs are powerful tools for finding others who share ancestral connections and as a method to exchange family history. WorldConnect allows individuals, in a simple, user-friendly way, to upload, delete and download GEDCOMs online.

RootsWeb's software for WorldConnect is the newest, most comprehensive and advanced available on the Web, according to Leverich. Key features allow users to:

- Upload a GEDCOM file generated by any of the major software applications without first having to convert the file to HTML (hypertext markup language).

- Delete your GEDCOMs and change the display or download options at any time.

- Link the GEDCOM to a home page.

- Screen or remove information about living individuals.

- Attach "Post-Em" notes, both from the GEDCOM originator and from other users to the record of a particular individual.

- Link a GEDCOM to other GEDCOMs using "Post-Ems."

- Download portions (subsets) of the original GEDCOM, starting with a specific person and choosing either ancestors or descendants, (if allowed by the owner of the GEDCOM).

- Display GEDCOMs in the most highly flexible ways available on the Web.

"Our GEDCOM program was months in the making and was developed by some of the most talented programmers in the business," said Leverich.

"The display capabilities set a new standard. RootsWeb prides itself on being the consumer's friend. You will never see it taking the hard work of RootsWeb users and burning that information into a CD-ROM or charging others to access; and our users have full control of their GEDCOMs and can change or remove them at any time," Leverich said.

The WorldConnect Project is being hailed as the most user- friendly and unrestricted of its kind on the Web.

"This has to be the greatest resource for genealogy yet," said Steven Howard, a WorldConnect user. "Within the first half hour of uploading my own GEDCOM, I found someone else with my name in it. I sent him a message and by evening had a call from him. It turns out he lives across town from me."

GEDCOMs can be uploaded at http://worldconnect.geneal-

ogy.rootsweb.com/. However, you need not have a Web site or even access to the Web to participate in WorldConnect, but you do need an e-mail address. RootsWeb accepts GEDCOMs on floppy or ZIP disks and on CDs. Send your GEDCOM, along with your name and e-mail address, to: RootsWeb WorldConnect Project, 1001 Tower Way, Suite #120, Bakersfield, Calif., 93309.

RootsWeb will upload your GEDCOM and send you notification by e- mail of your account name and password. RootsWeb's default display choice is to remove the names of everyone in a user's GEDCOM who was born within the past 100 years.

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