This is not the first web site we've had dedicated to our genealogy. Over the years there have been versions hosted at Rootsweb, Genealogy.com, and other free host providers. These sites were made by software that converts the raw Gedcom data into many static web pages. In 2004, I set up my own domain name and started hosting my own site. That site, however, was difficult to update and maintain, due to the original structure it was based upon. This new site reflects both my development in web site design, and with a great piece of back-end software that was created by Darrin Lythgoe, the site now virtually updates itself! (Well... Almost!)
As browser technology progresses, we try to keep our site up to the latest standards. Most new browsers support the new CSS3 specifications, which allow designers to make the pages have a different look by adding rounded corners to boxes, without using images, which speeds up page loading times. We can also add things like opacity, which is why you can see the background image of the tree branches showing through all the elements on the page. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer does not play well with the new specifications. Apparently, IE9 will be compatible, but for now all other versions are not. There are several workarounds to make IE6, IE7, and IE8 play nice, but I was not happy with the results. So, for now, all IE users will see just plain old square corners. The opacity features will work however. I was able to use an appropriate workaround for that particular feature.
In addition, the old site that was the new site mentioned above had outgrown itself. It was fine when it was just used for our genealogy, but when we started to add more features such as search engines, and pages and pages of census records, it got harder and harder to manage. So, after the site has grown to almost 2000 members, we decided it was time to start over. We sat down and decided what to keep, and what to get rid of. We also listened to all our users who offered many suggestions on how to improve things.
This site has been fully tested in the latest DHTML browsers, including, but not limited to: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and Safari. I have made no attempt to make this site operate 100% properly in IE6. There are just too many things to do to try to make it compatible. Studies have shown that less than 5% of the population are still using IE6. Here is a report from W3Schools (Part of the consortium that makes decisions about browsers and how they should work):

Internet Explorer Statistics

Click the link to see a breakdown of the Internet Explorer numbers from W3Schools:

This site is best viewed at a screen resolution of at least 1024x768 or larger. Download a new browser here. Click the logo of your choice.