As we begin the Federation's 25th year, we do so with a tremendous amount of thanks and gratitude to those who have worked so hard to make the organization a success. As with the beginning of any genealogical society, the Federation struggled during the early years for both people and resources. Today we pass the baton to a new executive committee and note that the opportunities for the Federation to serve the genealogical community have never been more abundant.

During the last five years, the development of a new partnership to benefit the world's genealogical records and the community of genealogical societies has been culminated. The Federation is pleased to announce its partnership with funeralCENTRAL. funeralCENTRAL is a Web site designed to provide free information about every funeral every day in the United States and Canada. Within a very short period of time, it will extend globally.

The organizers of funeralCENTRAL have formed a successful partnership with the funeral industry and family historians to satisfy the needs of both organizations and to provide an revolutionary service to the public. funeralCENTRAL will publish the information provided on a daily basis by funeral homes throughout North America. The public will be able to access any funeral information that may be of particular interest to them.

The funeralCENTRAL Roots program provides that a digital memorial will be offered exclusively through a partnership with local funeral homes and will give families an opportunity to memorialize their loved ones in a unique new way. These tributes may be in the form of pictures, poems, or stories about their relationship with the deceased and will be accessible in perpetuity.

FGS and funeralCENTRAL, along with their technology partners, Hewlett Packard, Logical Network Inc., and Inflow, are jointly sponsoring a Founders' Program designed to launch the funeralCENTRAL Web site to the public. For a brief 45-day period, members of the genealogical community will be invited to memorialize their ancestors for a nominal fee if they are prepared to scan the photos and organize the memorials themselves.

This offer will be for one time only. After this initial period, the memorials will be published exclusively through local funeral homes and funeralCENTRAL will not sell directly to the public.

funeralCENTRAL has four main objectives in making this offer. First, to populate the new Web site with meaningful data including photographs so that the site can be launched with the largest inventory of information on ancestors. Second, to demonstrate the demand to memorialize ancestors and celebrate family history. Third, to offer a free source of data where the public can search for their roots. Fourth, to demonstrate the broad public interest in family history information.

funeralCENTRAL is prepared to offer a special "Founders' Memorial Package" for $24.95. The elements of the Memorial Package include: 1) a biography of up to two pages in length along with a photograph, 2) several anecdotes or stories or a eulogy re-created as might have been given at the funeral, and 3) a photo album of up to a dozen photographs with accompanying text to describe each photo. This narrative that will supplement the photo with stories, memories or other recollections to assist the celebration of a life. The photo album may also include scanned images of documents such as awards, diplomas, military memorabilia or important, hand-written documents. Additional photo spaces can be purchased for $20 per set of twelve.

Additional Founders' Memorial Packages can be purchased for $5 each. Up to eleven additional memorials can be purchased with the $24.95 offer described above. For example, the first memorial package is purchased at $24.95 and the next 11 are purchased for $5 so that a total of a dozen individual ,emorials can be purchased for $80. 

Although founding genealogists will have only a 45-day window (or less) in which to purchase memorials, they will have at least a full year to build them. Each purchaser will be provided a password and ID to allow secure access to create or update their memorials. Purchasers may, at their option, elect to post their e-mail address with the memorial and solicit others to provide additional information and photos.

To create a memorial and take advantage of this special offer, go to the funeralCENTRAL Web site, where you will find detailed information.

After all these years of watching other countries have nationwide death record indexes, it will be exciting to see this happen for North America. The Federation is proud to be a part of funeralCENTRAL and to link the genealogical community with this valuable new resource.

As the outgoing President of FGS, I wish to thank all of those who have served with me on the FGS Board of Directors and Executive Board. I am also indebted to the delegates and all of you in the genealogical community who work so diligently to promote and further the work of genealogical societies in this country and internationally. Always remember, together, we can make a difference!

David Rencher

I noticed that the press release from the company providing the database refers to it as rootsCENTRAL, not funeralCENTRAL:

rootsCENTRAL . . . Preserving and Sharing Memories
rootsCENTRAL, in partnership with the funeral industry and the genealogical community has established one "CENTRAL" Web site to preserve what has become the richest legacy of a family's history, its cherished photographs and the stories behind them.

rootsCENTRAL takes advantage of new technologies that will shape the memorial industry of tomorrow. Our generation has a treasure trove of photographs documenting nearly every stage of our lives. In 1999 an estimated 82 billion photos were taken and photofinishing services accounted for annual revenues of $39 billion. At rootsCENTRAL, photos are digitized so that their quality is permanent and so they can be stored, shared and viewed inexpensively. Mike Berryman, of Logical, says, "We have developed the leading edge solution, using state-of-the-art Hewlett Packard technology, so that rootsCENTRAL delivers the highest level of confidence to preserve and maintain memorials and publish them using the Internet."

What makes rootsCENTRAL special is that it gathers not only the pictures, but also the story behind the pictures: the memories, the anecdotes, the associations, and the details of dates, times and occasions. We have all labored over collections of old photos (with nearly illegible scribbles on the back) and experienced the sense of urgency that comes with knowing that what we don’t document now may soon be lost for all time.

The funeral industry is an essential partner because it is involved with families at a transition point in family history. The funeral industry works hard to serve families better and to make memorialization less expensive. rootsCENTRAL will provide funeral homes the facility to publish a Funeral Information Notice (FIN), similar to that published in the newspaper. This will be a free service, one for every death. This memorial notice will be preserved in perpetuity. To enrich this memorial, funeral homes will offer to create a memorial from family photographs and stories.

"Today’s funeral purchasers are insisting on personal touches to make the ceremony a unique celebration of an individual’s life. They are looking for an event focused more on the memorialization of a life than on the mourning of a death . . . photographs and stories from the rootsCENTRAL memorials help fulfill that need" says Doug Porter, President of Turner and Porter Funeral Directors, one of the largest independent funeral homes in North America.

This same observation is echoed by Dr. Alan Wolfelt, the internationally known grief educator: "People today, particularly baby boomers, are interested in creating unique funeral services that focus on personalization and memorialization." rootsCENTRAL incorporates tradition inexpensively and provides the funeral director highly personalized, creative memorials, to help their families acknowledge death, recall important memories and give tribute to lives lived.

Genealogy is a key partner in this venture because genealogists are on a mission to document and preserve family history. In the past, they have struggled because family history has been an oral tradition. With the passing of each generation the memories fade and then disappear. The interest in ancestors is a national pursuit shared by half the population and is one of the most popular online activities. Digital publishing rights for the photos and materials stored at rootsCENTRAL are the property of The Federation of Genealogical Societies. It is this relationship that, in addition to the technology, provides the security of perpetuity. David Rencher, the Past President of The Federation says, "As rootsCENTRAL matures and funeral homes publish funeral information for every death we will have established a national death index. After all of these years of watching other countries have nationwide death record indexes, it will be exciting to have this happen for North America. The Federation is proud to be a part of rootsCENTRAL and to link the genealogical community to this valuable new resource."

For a short period of time, before the commercial sales of memorials becomes the exclusive franchise of local funeral professionals, rootsCENTRAL is, with the aid of sponsors and at the bequest of The Federation of Genealogical Societies, opening the web site to genealogists and the public for approximately 45 days with a special Founders’ Program. Myles Cairns, president and Chief Operating Officer elaborates on the significance of the new venture: "rootsCENTRAL will revolutionize memorials. It makes them richer and more meaningful and it is a break though because it makes perpetuity affordable. Best of all it makes memories easy to share with friends and family now and in the future: it allows the memorial to come to the public instead of the public going to the traditional physical memorial location."

You can see this for yourself at rootsCENTRAL.com and at funeralCENTRAL.com.