OurRoots Promised to be the "Google for Genealogy"

Ourroots.com. Never heard of it? That's because it STILL hasn't launched. In a 04 November 2020 post on the Rootsfinder blog, Dallan Quass, PhD (a developer who's been involved with many reputable and successful genealogy sites) proclaimed it would be the "Google for genealogy", a search engine indexing "(almost) all genealogy on the web." It was supposed to launch 2021 and it was bound to be impressive, right?

As 2021 turned into "the pandemic", the launch date shifted to 2022. Then it shifted again to 2023. And as of the date of this post (although the ourroots.com site hasn't been updated with this information) the original blog post on Rootsfinder.com now states "Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances the google for genealogy project has been indefinitely postponed." Is that really indefinitely postponed? Or has it been shelved forever? 

In theory, it sounded amazing! We all know how frustrating it can be sifting through Google search results....or worse, not having any viable results appear. Ourroots.com could've been the solution we've longed for and dreamed of. Imagine a search engine returning untold numbers of relevant results to our eagerly waiting fingertips. Oh, how the brick walls might've crumbled...!

Such a great concept, but will the miracle ever happen? I rather suspect indexing all those sites was a bigger project, requiring far more working capital and programming, than anticipated. They also claimed you'd be able to upload records and books (possibly some copyright issues there??) as well as your tree, and they'd make them searchable too. That's certainly a lot of moving pieces...and promises. 

There is an ourroots.org site. It's a database management system for genealogy societies where they can upload records, media and books and make them searchable on their websites (hmmm....sounds a little familiar...was ourroots.com going to springboard off this?). This open source project appears to have had some success (how much is hard to tell). There's a Facebook page withs posts in late 2022 with users asking questions. But the last GitHub updates appear to have been 8 months ago. Though there were some "see it in action" links making it appear functional, it looks like maybe this project stalled as well.

I have to wonder if ourroots,com will ever actually sprout into a full fledged search engine after all. I hope this venture eventually reaches fruition. It could be a game changer for amateur (and maybe professional) genealogists everywhere. For now, we're left wondering whether this grand idea will ever see the light of day.

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