Goodbye to the Rootsweb Mailing Lists

Those of you who have been researching your family history for a while will probably remember the Rootsweb Mailing Lists fondly.  A decade of more ago they were extremely popular - a great place to ask questions, seek help and make contact with others researching your family.  There were thousands of lists - covering countries, states and counties, specific topics and local areas.  Over the years I have used many of them.

More recently the lists have faded somewhat, replaced by Facebook groups, and as a result many of the Rootsweb Mailing Lists have become inactive.  Finally Ancestry, who have owned Rootsweb since June 2000, have made the decision to close the lists down.

The following is an annoucement from RootsWeb 

"Beginning March 2nd, 2020 the Mailing Lists functionality on RootsWeb will be discontinued. Users will no longer be able to send outgoing emails or accept incoming emails.  Additionally, administration tools will no longer be available to list administrators and mailing lists will be put into an archival state.

Administrators may save the email addresses in their list prior to March 2nd. After that, mailing list archives will remain available and searchable on RootsWeb.

As an alternative to RootsWeb Mailing Lists, Ancestry message boards are a great option to network with others in the genealogy community. Message boards are available for free with an Ancestry registered account.

Thank you for being part of the RootsWeb family and contributing to this community.

Sincerely, The RootsWeb team."

The discontinuation of the mailing lists is the end of an era, and highlights how much the way we research changes over time.  As the Ancestry Message Boards and various Facebook Groups and Google Hangouts take over, the old Mailing Lists have dropped in usage and popularity to the point where the owners have decided their day is past.  Over a number of years they have served good purpose, however, and I for one will miss them.  To all those people I have contact on the Lists over the years, to all the administrators who kept the lists running smoothly and for free, thank you for your time, your help and you enthusiasm.