I wouldn't argue with you regarding pay sites and affording to use them Ancestry is perhaps my one vice, I don't go out, smoke & rarely drink so the cost of less than a pint a week is well worth the expense to me But do remember that many libraries have Ancestry and or Findmypast as do the LDS FHS Plus the good nature of rootsweb list subscribers of course So there are quite a lot of cheap if not free resources, far more than say ten years ago Lets face it if genealogy was not big business we would not have the availability of resources that we now have would we? As to visiting archives etc, you want to try it from Cornwall ! Not easy or cheap I can assure you Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) Unfortunately Nivard, not all of us can afford Ancestry, findmypast, et al subscriptions and that was the ethos behind creating my family history website. Family history research has become big business and unless one has the time to visit archives, libraries, etc. it has to be done online. Phil