This is a forwarded message From: Miller Sandra <smiller@hamilton-medical.ch> To: <CZECH-D@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, September 18, 2004, 2:39:37 AM Subject: {not a subscriber} Re: [CZ] Castle Garden-HLUBOKY ===8<==============Original message text=============== I'd like to say a few words, too, about ancestry.com, etc. I conduct my research from overseas, so I can't go to the National Archives or other such repositories of records. I decided some time back, therefore, to get annual subscriptions to parts of both ancestry and genealogy. Although I pay several hundred dollars a year for everything, I consider this a necessary investment in my hobby -- and believe me, these dollars have paid off handsomely in the efficiency and effectiveness of my research. There is a lot to be said for doing a bit of spontaneous surfing without having to schedule and plan all my activities. I've made many important discoveries late at night, when I had a sudden urge to check something out. Then there's the bit about searching computer versus microfilm -- for me, FAR more efficient. I had given up ever finding the passenger records for my Hruda ancestors, for example. The Hrudas weren't indexed in Baca's book and I just wasn't finding them in the microfilm passenger list. I had given up, although I knew their approximate date of immigration. But one day, I was messing around on the ancestry.com passenger lists, and I don't know what I did, but voila! There they were, the Ruda family, arriving one day earlier than I thought, their first names mangled almost beyond recognition. Would I have had the patience to find them in any other way? I seriously doubt it! Sandy Miller Sandy Miller Riedmatt 5 6300 Zug Switzerland +41 41 740 43 54 +41 41 740 43 56 (Fax) member1326@grischavision.ch ===8<===========End of original message text===========