RootsWeb trees (beta)

[andrewalston]

The family trees section of RootsWeb (WorldConnect)has been frozen for nearly two years now.

Recently a replacement set of pages has appeared, and Ancestry are moving the old data across - they say this will take months.

As someone whose main database has an A at the front of its name, I appear to be one of the first to see the results.

Awful.

I used to use this as a means of making my research publicly available. The site showed nearly every event I uploaded, along with source citations. Because it was open to all without need to sign up for an account, it was visible to those who aren't able to spend loads of cash.

The new version throws away almost ALL events. It keeps names. It keeps dates and places of BMD events. It keeps relationships.

It keeps nothing else. No descriptive texts, no censuses, no baptisms, no occupations....

But it is very careful to point you to spend money and search on Ancestry and Fold3.

You might like to compare:
The original RootsWeb:
   https://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=aalston&id=I105
That version copied into the new beta system:
   https://wcbeta.rootsweb.com/trees/100179/I105/nancyannie-knowles/individual
The result of uploading a fresh GEDCOM to the beta:
   https://wcbeta.rootsweb.com/trees/395743/I105/nancyannie-knowles/individual

[bikermickau]

atm I'm either getting "ERROR: Backend service down. Please try again later." for 2 of your links.

Or "This site can’t be reached The webpage at https://wcbeta.rootsweb.com/trees/395743/I105/nancyannie-knowles/individual might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_SPDY_PROTOCOL_ERROR"

Doesn't look like my family tree data has been brought over.
A relative whos tree starts with J appears to have come over, however I get the same error.

I'm not having any problems with the old version.

[andrewalston]

Weird. Seems to be working for a non-logged-in user now, so not a permissions problem.

Possibly Ancestry were doing maintenance.

My other big lump of data has a name beginning with D, but they haven't copied that yet.

[pigletlovesfamily]

I too was fed up with not being able to update my tree for two years. Having finally being able to use the Beta  version I am aghast at what has been removed. All of my research! No events, no cause of death, full sources. What use is this tree?
I am writing to ancestry as it appears that if I delete my previous trees then I cannot update them properly. There was nowhere to give them a title, to enable people to find them easily either.
The final straw was when trying to upload a new gedcom. I discovered this: You may use any FTP client to access the site. This short video will show you how to use FileZilla to access your site.

https://www.ancestry.com/academy/course/connect-rootsweb-filezilla
Downloaded Classic FTP,  then stalemate. What do I enter? I used to use Core but now that too does not work. I am so fed up.

[andrewalston]

Unfortunately, Ancestry have now REMOVED the old view of the trees on RootsWeb.

I've just checked, and the current, useless view is being generated from the original GEDCOM. Downloading the old tree gave me my original file from September 2017.

So there is hope that we can lobby Ancestry to improve things. Our data is ready for them to display.