Linda has made her point eliquinly and I agree. Concider all the magazines on the coffee table etc. which are costly and sometimes we hardly glance at before the next issue arrives. As to Ancestry for a couple of years before I subscribed I received their free online newsletter which daily announced what they were putting online and would be available free of charge for 10 days before being available only on the pay site. I'm not advocating that everyone join Ancestry or other such sites just that it has been money well spent for me and much more than some of the magazines laying in the basket that I have spent more on than Ancestry and received little value for. As Linda said, make a trip to a library or courthouse, then consider how much your gas, lunch, copies, etc. costs. This is just a day trip. If it's a distance add a motel, then rethink the cost of a pay online site and you've got a bargain. I challenge anyone to try to do research in another country and find anything free. I have purchased some material and do free lookups in the county where I live although my family only came to this area in the late 1930's and this area is not of interest to me genealogically. It's just a way of passing it on. Let us all be thankful for the many things that are online free and count our blessings. BTW did some of you know that this list is really not free? Your listowner makes and annual donation to keep it free for the list members. Ann Bohannon McDonald Searcy Co.,AR listmanager ----- Original Message ----- From: "Linda Haas Davenport" <lhaasdav@mindspring.com> To: <ARMARION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 6:07 AM Subject: Pay to use sites > I'd like to toss out my 2 cents worth on the "pay for view" sites. No > actually I want to get on my "soap box". Feel free to hit the delete key now > if you wish. > > I've been a genealogist for many years, way before the web was in existence > and I can tell you that it was a time consuming, frustrating and very > expensive hobby. I spent untold dollars getting copies of things and even > more untold hours waiting for replies - some of which never came. The yearly > fees for places like Ancestry are trivial compared to the money I spent in > the past. > > I don't know why so many people think that genealogy information should be > free no matter what. Would any of us walk into McDonalds expecting to > receive our food for free just because eating is required to stay alive? Or > do we expect our doctor to treat us for free? Or our accountant to do our > taxes for free. Or more to the point - do we all expect to get out of bed > every day and go spend 8 hours at our job and not have a pay check on > Friday? Of course not. > > So why do so many people expect the sites that are putting information on > line to be free? Let us all remember that it takes a lot of human labor to > transcribe records and a lot of expensive computer equipment to get them > on-line and keep them on-line. These businesses are in **Business** and as > such must make a profit or they will not be able to stay in business. And, > since their business is making old records available to the public we would > all be the losers if they were to close down. > > Yes, there are a few sites like Family Discover.com that are scams but they > are very few, at least so far. And, yes there are sites like the USGenWeb > Project where volunteers get information on-line for free, but where are the > volunteers that are needed to get as much information on-line as such places > as Ancestry? > > I've been the hostess of the Marion Co site for almost 3 years now and in > that time I can count on one hand (with fingers left over) the number of > people who have offered to help me transcribe records, or walk a cemetery or > copy an old book. I can tell you that I have spent hundreds of hours > transcribing, formatting and getting on line the information you find on the > Marion Co site. I'm not complaining because I took on the job knowing that I > would have to do the majority of the work. But, the information on the > Marion Co site is a rain drop in the ocean compared to such places as > Ancestry. > > If every single genealogist would take one roll of microfilm from the LDS > Library and transcribe the entire roll and let it be put on-line then there > would be no reason for the pay per view sites. But, you see that hasn't, and > won't, happen. > > In my experience, about 97% of family hunters are only interested in their > own families and not interested at all in investing a lot of hours to > transcribe records that are not directly related to their own families. > > So before we all grip and complain about having to pay to access information > let's all stop and think about where we would be if the information was not > available? I know where I would be - right back to paying for every copy, > not being able to take off from work to visit a library or struggling to > find time after work to visit the LDS family centers. > > And last, but not least. This discussion has come and gone on many e-mail > lists and there is always someone who says they cannot afford to pay for a > subscription service. I can only say that in every instance where that > comment was made, there were several offers from people, like me, who are > more than willing to look up the information needed on the pay for view > sites and pass it along. > > OK I'm off my soap box now and off to work. Everyone have a good day. > > Linda > > lhaasdav@mindspring.com > Home.page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~haas > Marion.Co.AR http://www.rootsweb.com/~armarion > List hostess for -h.a.a.s/l.e.w.a.l.l.e.n/w.a.s.h.i.n.g.t.o.n n.c > Interested in Construction? Check out my new book - "The Scopes of Work" at > http://www.builderbooks.com/bbstore/index.icl > > >