Updating the Status of the Databases

You know at the time I wrote the June 9th post regarding the status of Brouwer Genealogy and particularly the associated databases, I had a feeling that there would soon be a change and some movement at RootsWeb. And that is just what we are now seeing.

Now when you try to access one of the databases or pages hosted by RootsWeb's Free Pages, you are redirected to the Ancestry.com sign in page. That's not much of an improvement, but head over to the RootsWeb page and you'll see that they have updated the status of their efforts to re-establish the service. They last update had beem March 6, 2018. The new update is not dated but it appears to have been placed online just a few days ago.

Hosted Web Sites, which would be the category under which all of the databases and PDF pages fall, are not yet available, but Roots Web does appear to be getting started with them, beginning with the USGENWEB sites, of which there are 600. The rest of us are asked to request reinstatement of our pages sometime "in the coming weeks" when a link is made available. There is no indication of how long after a request is made that the pages will actually be restored and available online.

So, there is movement, but we still may be a ways away from being up and back online. I will keep you posted.

Added after initial post: Here is a new RootsWeb Blog which promises to announce updates. So, if you wish to follow progress directly, subscribe to the RootsWeb Blog site. I will be adding it to the My Blog List found in the right column of this page.

July 5, 2018: A request was placed with RootsWeb for the restoration of the Brouwer Genealogy Database website. According to the RootsWeb Blog post of July 5th, the restoration could take 2-4 weeks. Based on past experience that sounds optimistic. We'll see. The other databases (Brewer-Lanier, and Brewers of New England for example) were set up as sub-directories of the Brouwer Genealogy Database, so I suspect that they would be restored when the BGD is restored. Again, we'll see.

July 13, 2018: Some RootsWeb hosted sites are in fact back up online. The sites listed here are hosted by RootsWeb and have a different URL root (for lack of a better term) than did the Brouwer Genealogy Database.  The URL for the BGD was http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com:80/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm

July 20, 2018: The Brouwer Genealogy Database is back online, but with a new URL -  http://sites.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/index.htm. However, it is not complete. Sub-directories, which include other database websites such as Brewer of New England, do not appear to be online. Also, the majority of PDFs, linked from various links found within posts on this blog and within the BGD, are also not available, as they too, were within sub-directories of the main site.

July 20, 2018: Brewer Families of New England and Brewer-Lanier Database, ARE now back online. New URLs:  http://sites.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/NEBrewer/index.htm and http://sites.rootsweb.com/~brouwergenealogydata/BrewerSouth/index.htm. The other databases are also online. Links are available on the right under "Databases." See the July 20, 2018 post.

July 31, 2018: I have been able to retrieve the files, including PDFs, associated with brouwergenealogydata. As time permits, I will add the PDFs to the Replacement Links page.

August 27, 2018: It appears that the links to PDF pages stored on the RootsWeb servers have been restored. And so, most of the links within each of the individual posts on this blog should once again be working. Should you come across one that does not work, please let me know via the Comments option for this post. 

BGB 590