It depends how much money you have, for some, well, it might as well be a million dollars, it is out of reach. They have the same desire to find their ancestors in their pj's but medicine, food, and shelter are just their priority. -----Original Message----- From: Marilyn L. Arnold Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 9:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [BW] Soc Sec Deaths From: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [BW] Soc Sec Deaths >Less free sites are available every week. > fewer true. My biggest complaint is not w/Ancestry (which provides a lot of buck for the money) it's with all the sites where you used to be able to get tel #s, addresses for free and now it's pay only $20-30/shot. Now THAT should be free! Yes, it is a concern for those on limited means, but going to a FHL, with limited hours vs. 24/7 connection there's no comparison. Don't have to get dressed up; can relax w/my coffee. I mean $300/yr, or $0.83/day is cheap. I can't GET to a FHL for that $$$ and I drive a hybrid not a beast box/SUV/truck-class vehicle. Home vs. no coffee, no comfortable clothes, people talking loudly ... which is worth more? Ancestry, in business terms, is the big gorilla in the closet -- no real competitors (for US resources). But GWB put the country into two major wars 12 years ago, plus a republican-dominated legislature, at the same time, rather than raising taxes to fund these wars, lowered taxes -- leaving no money for discressionary spending. What this meant, in simple terms was that we (US) went from having a record surplus under the previous administration to a record deficit), as we (US) were spending BILLIONS more money than we were taking in in revenue (taxes). While these (SSDI records, census, other public records) probably should be free (after all, they are -- public!), they will never be under current economic circumstances the US was thrust into under this administration. Yes, it would be great if all these records were digitized and free, but we (in the US) are in a terrible economic position -- caused by the billions and billions we're spending internationally, without any offset in income/compensation -- and funding for things that you (I, many) feel might be important -- like free access to public records via digitization at the National Archives, Library of Congress, is just not going to happen any time soon. That's just the reality. Ancestry is ONE of several contractors now making $$$ doing just this an charging the public for access to these records. (Our government is oursourcing this project.) And (as a 12-15+ year user of Ancestry) the QC has seriously gone downhill as they've done more outsourcing to foreign countries.) Is this appropriate? Probably not. Is this an appropriate discussion for this list? Probably not, either! I'm new to the list so please don't dump for this one post. As to the SSDI records themselves ... we (you, I ... all of us) have LOST access to them in the last 6 months, without notice. (Probably an appropriate post) REF: http://megansmolenyak.posterous.com/social-security-administration-extends-foia-r For those of us interested in family history, this will only make it harder to find family members. I personally am very blessed to have found my Mother's cousins families and it was only through the SS-5. It's been such a joy. Without this information ... it would have been families lost forever ... very sad ... ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 2:00 PM Subject: Re: [BW] Soc Sec Deaths >I agree with you both, Marvin and Max. Less free sites are available every >week. > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message