FW: Re: FW: RE: USGenWeb Problem

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NancyJanyszeski

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Oct 6, 2025, 12:26:37 PMOct 6
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Hi, is there anyone who might have a suggestion that could be of help to Randy?



Nancy 

Nancy  Janyszeski. 🍀




-------- Original message --------
From: Randy C <r.cummi...@gmail.com>
Date: 9/22/25 10:25 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: Nancy_Janyszeski <nancyja...@yahoo.com>
Subject: USGenWeb Problem

Good Morning Nancy,

I didn't know what the protocol for this
problem was, so I decided to start with my SC representative.

From early 1999 to January  2017 this URL, http://www.usgenweb.org/oh was "redirected" to The OHGenWeb Project's homepage. It appears from the wayback history of Ohio that the usgenweb webmaster was diligent about updating the redirect when Ohio's URL changed.

That is how we operate our OHGenWeb Counties links, so that when a new CC changes the server, all of the old links will still work, for the county homepage anyway.

I would like to have this repaired since during my rebuilding of Ohio county sites I have found hundreds of links to that usgenweb redirect page, http://www.usgenweb.org/oh I am also finding them on old 'homepages.rootsweb' & 'freepages.rootsweb' pages trying to link to our Project. If we repair these redirects the researchers that find an old page will end up where they want to be instead of at a 500 Internal Server Error error.

Please let me know

Thank you for everything you do!
Randy Cummings
SC OHGenWeb


--
Randy C
GenWeb Volunteer
BS"D



--
Randy C
GenWeb Volunteer
BS"D

Norma Hass

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Oct 6, 2025, 12:35:17 PMOct 6
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Nancy,
I would be happy to help. I'll contact Randy and the USGenWeb Web Manager Team.
Norma

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Dale H. Cook

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Oct 6, 2025, 12:42:29 PMOct 6
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On 6 Oct 2025 12:26 pm, Nancy Janyszeski wrote:

> Hi, is there anyone who might have a suggestion that could be of help to
> Randy?

Nancy -

When I have a chance I will send him an email - Randy is one of my MA
TCs so we already know each other. In short, AFAIK there is nothing he
can do about the RootsWeb links at this point. I can probably help him
with the OH site redirect.
--
Dale H. Cook, Member, NEHGS, AGS, MA Soc. of Mayflower Descendants;
Massachusetts State Coordinator for the USGenWeb® Project;
Administrator of https://plymouthcolony.net

NancyJanyszeski

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Oct 6, 2025, 2:00:25 PMOct 6
to Norma Hass, state...@googlegroups.com

NancyJanyszeski

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Oct 6, 2025, 2:01:58 PMOct 6
to Dale H. Cook, state...@googlegroups.com
Hi Dale thank you



Nancy 

Nancy  Janyszeski. 🍀


-------- Original message --------
From: "Dale H. Cook" <us...@mathomhouseradio.net>
Date: 10/6/25 12:42 PM (GMT-05:00)
Subject: Re: [SC-USGWg] FW: Re: FW: RE: USGenWeb Problem

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Randy C

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Oct 6, 2025, 2:09:02 PMOct 6
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I am afraid that I am not being clear, as usual.

The problem with RootsWeb archived pages is no one can fix the links, but in this case we do have the power to.

I believe that for almost 20 years these redirects were coded in to usgenweb.org's htaccess page. It doesn't seem like a major thing to maintain. I think that there are only  1 or 2 state domain name changes a year.

Randy Cummings
USGenWeb Volunteer


r.cummi...@gmail.com

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Oct 19, 2025, 1:51:00 PMOct 19
to State Coordinators
I have been meaning to thank you all, the NC is looking into my proposal.

I have been going through Ohio counties sites trying to get all rid of all the 'neighboring' county links to rootsweb.

I was pretty surprised, to find at  Highland County Ohio, the same CC has been maintaining it for 25 years, her homepage has this as a link back to the state site: http://www.usgenweb.com/oh

Could it be that only Ohioans were using the redirects that USGW had set up?

Randy

Betty Baker

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Oct 19, 2025, 3:07:02 PMOct 19
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So, what is the deal with the grandfathered Rootsweb websites.   I have one (I was an early donor to Rootsweb) and would love to be able to go in and make some updates.  Are they just static pages now on some obscure server never to be touched again?
 

__________________________________

Betty Baker 

www.ShadywoodQuilts.com/

My Blog: Shadywood.blogspot.com



Pat Asher

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Oct 19, 2025, 3:33:41 PMOct 19
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Betty, RootsWeb sites became static early in 2024. See
https://support.rootsweb.com/s/article/Retiring-and-Migrating-Portions-of-RootsWeb

The URLs were changed to
sites.rootsweb.com/~accountname/

Pat Asher 


On 10/19/2025 3:06 PM, Betty Baker wrote:
So, what is the deal with the grandfathered Rootsweb websites.   I have one (I was an early donor to Rootsweb) and would love to be able to go in and make some updates.  Are they just static pages now on some obscure server never to be touched again?
 

__________________________________

Betty Baker 

www.ShadywoodQuilts.com/

My Blog: Shadywood.blogspot.com



On Sun, Oct 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM r.cummi..@gmail.com <r.cummi...@gmail.com> wrote:
I have been meaning to thank you all, the NC is looking into my proposal.

I have been going through Ohio counties sites trying to get all rid of all the 'neighboring' county links to rootsweb.

I was pretty surprised, to find at  Highland County Ohio, the same CC has been maintaining it for 25 years, her homepage has this as a link back to the state site: http://www.usgenweb.com/oh

Could it be that only Ohioans were using the redirects that USGW had set up?

Randy


On Monday, October 6, 2025 at 11:09:02 AM UTC-7 Randy C wrote:
I am afraid that I am not being clear, as usual.

The problem with RootsWeb archived pages is no one can fix the links, but in this case we do have the power to.

I believe that for almost 20 years these redirects were coded in to usgenweborg's htaccess page. It doesn't seem like a major thing to maintain. I think that there are only  1 or 2 state domain name changes a year.

Randy Cummings
USGenWeb Volunteer




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Randy C
GenWeb Volunteer
BS"D

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Kris Meyer

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Oct 19, 2025, 3:41:40 PMOct 19
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I think rootsweb archived the sites. They are still there but no charges can be made.


Kris

Timothy Stowell

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Oct 20, 2025, 1:14:00 AMOct 20
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The last note I had from Rootsweb was that if original site owners
wanted their sites removed, Rootsweb would take them down. I had 3 or
4 sites that I ran out of time to delete all the files that still show
up under the Rootsweb banner. I haven't contacted Rootsweb about any
of them though.

Tim S.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/state-coord/CAKr8zTjyTyRZRkEWcysJ1OS7sNwe3A_0kRek2wHuf-K2hqx3Kw%40mail.gmail.com.
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