RootsWeb is an extremely popular genealogical community site that was developed by Karen Isaacson and Brian Leverich in 1997. An online gathering place for those interested in genealogy and history, RootsWeb was based on the notion that genealogical information should be free. Unfortunately, the financial model based on donations, rather than subscription or fee, failed. It was necessary to seek funding and Ancestry.com came forward to assume responsibility for the site and its maintenance. Despite the failure of the donation model, RootsWeb is still free.

At the time of its merger with Ancestry in June 2000, RootsWeb had about 600,000 registered users, was serving about 100,000,000 Web page views monthly, and was delivering about 160,000,000 pieces of email monthly to the subscribers of its 18,000 mailing lists. The company had more than 40 employees and operated its own 7,000 square foot network operations center in Bakersfield, CA.

RootsWeb's success has always been dependent upon volunteers from the genealogical community. Today there are only a handful of staff allotted by Ancestry to support the duties of maintaining RootsWeb. However, what keeps RootsWeb going and keeps its access free, are the thousands of volunteers who manage the lists, boards, help desk and other features at RootsWeb.com.