May I add two pence worth! Lucky, Lucky us!! I am delighted with Scotlandspeople, learning to use wild cards to fix my problem of Powrie Po*rie and Pourie, (an earlier spelling). It just takes practice to learn what website to use. I can find most, but occasionally hit ancestry for census AND Scotlandspeople and use "Find My Past for military. Using two sources, and comparing results is helpful. Footnote gave me much in the way of historical newspapers. Some home they do a better job than Ancestry, which give Powder, Power in newspaper articles. The Scotsman archive is a much better tool. The Perth newspaper index on Ancestry netted a huge number of articles, 550. I had to pay someone to go copy them for me, but I just had to trim the research budget for this summer. I'll be gardening, so I won't feel the loss so much. Genforum has my surname message board, and it hooks many inquiries. I could do some 45-75 records a day at the GROS for my 17 pound entry fee, depending on if I was doing film (OPR), or fiche (civil registration). The English ones cost so much more, and births only list the father. I think we are amazingly lucky to have such resources available to us, and the Howff cemetery info is marvelous. They combined the Tayvalley Family History Society and Friends of Dundee databases. I'm confined to bed most days, and it amazes me how much can be over the Internet. Compared to "boots on the ground" research...it may mean budgeting. Can you imagine folks a 100 years ago looking at what we have today! They'd be dancing in the streets! A plane ticket, car and B&B money/food is so much more, we are blessed beyond measure. I listen to Dougie MacLean on my I-pod and research all day. I do have a budget I have to live within, but go to Scotlandspeople at least ever other day. I'm working through my World War I soldiers, and those records were burned during the Blitz. I only have 7 left out of 54. I get frustrated by a period occasionally not being available for a parish, but all things considered, I rejoice on having Scottish ancestors, with a few English strays. Some of my English cousins go back before 1837, so I have to call them English ancestors and not Scottish strays. What a bounty of heritage is available! We are very lucky indeed. Any news about the Angus burials being finished and online any time soon?? Without ages at death, the 53 new burials are proving to be "tricky" to attach to the right family, but I'm grateful to have them!! I now research my Powries 24/7. Each of these website's have strong and weak points, but Thanks to God we have all these tools to uncover our heritage! Scotlandspeople adding continually makes me want to send Thank You notes to the workers. Volunteers at other places have worked miracles adding to our choices! Like the Monument Inscriptions books, what a labour of love for our benefit. I have 17 stones for Powries in Perth and Angus, but the death and burial records have multiplied six times what I knew. SCRAN is one of my favorite subscriptions. They have added documents to their photo collection. RCAHMS is free but requires a registration. I love the mapping programs too, but bought a set of 1850's era reproduction. I copied them at Kinkos, so I could mark a set up. Too many results or too expensive.... Imagine what a researcher 100 years ago would say about such a discussion? I use the LDS/familysearch too, and used to volunteer out of gratitude. Hope I can get back to that, and traveling. First I've a book to finish. I'm finishing Scotland with My soldiers. Find My Past website told me more than the PRO website at Kew. I found Waterloo soldiers, and South African campaign ones from the Boer War. the Commonwealth Graves Commission has most of the Killed in battle soldiers, but stops WWI in August, 1945, and I have soldiers killed after that date. They don't cover the Boer War or other conflicts before WWI. What a toolbox of resources are to be had on the Internet! Not to mention being able to "talk" to cousins and friends around the planet. While we're sniping at what's wrong, let us also rejoice in what others have given us! Happy Tartan Day, Mary in Oregon In a message dated 4/6/2009 7:35:05 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, ovington1@sky.com writes: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" so goes the saying :-) We can make our calculations suit our needs and its very hard to draw a direct comparison between the two different systems of England/Wales & Scotland English/Welsh certs are 7gbp and you cannot look at the details or have them transcribed without buying the certificate, unlike Scotland where you can My point was not the cost but the fact I have never bought a wrong certificate as I am able to confirm its the right one by use of access to the census and civil registration indexes as a main stay With scotlandspeople I am forced to buy searches for totally unconnected people in the hope my target might be among them, once I think I have identified it, I can then buy the image, only then am I likely to know with any certainty if its my target or not I have just totted up roughly what Ancestry subscription has cost me over the last six years, answer approximately 454gbp For that I have been able to use it 24/7 at any time I wished, I have saved thousands of images (*at no extra charge*) in that time and along with my own research have been able to help many others along the way , I just checked my main folder for census images and have in excess of 1,040 there plus many more in other folders Using the same calculation as you used that makes it .44 pence per image if I count only those in my main census folder That does not count the access I have to the full birth marriage and deaths indexes, Scottish census transcripts, WW1 medal cards and service records, directories etc etc (the list is to huge to repeat) at no further cost It kind of knocks scotlandspeople into a cocked hat As I said previously I don't mind paying if I am getting what I pay for, I wouldn't buy ten pairs of trousers in the hope that one pair might fit me because the vendor hid the labels ;-) We will have to agree to disagree on this as I am sure others are heartily bored by it Best wishes Nivard Ovington, in Cornwall (UK) Nivard, We are probably average users of the Scotland's People [ScP] service and it's always seemed to be very good value for money. All Sheena's family were Scottish so we have been very focussed on ScP. Since 2002 I have downloaded 370+ images of which about 200+ were relevant. I have had nearly 700 pages of search hits. Total cost £510. This works out at about £2.50 per image - considerably cheaper than English ones. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ANGUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221621488x1201450096/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DAprilfooterNO62)