Free access to The Times Archive, going back 200 years, ends on 18 September. If like me, you have found that it has given you some valuable, often unexpected, information on your Essex family and local history (e.g. in the Personal announcements and articles covering WW1), I suggest that you use it as much as you can up to Thursday night.. The newspaper's announcement says that "All the featured content on our Archive home page and on Times Online will remain free to view, but if you wish to search the Archive there will be a charge to view the results." and lists the future tariff for full access to the Archive. Needless to say, this is not an invitation to subscribe! I recently returned from a four week trip to Colchester on time-consuming family business and was delighted to have free access to the Internet on Library terminals (though unable to download anything to my USB flash drive). I was very impressed by the way in which the Local Studies Collection had been re-organised for the benefit of family historians, but disappointed that I did not have the time to consult the parish registers that were deposited there when the rest of the stock of the Colchester and NE Essex branch of the County Record Office was transferred to Chelmsford. Best wishes Peter Moll Tortola British Virgin Islands Researching MOLLs in Southend-on-Sea and MOLLs and FREEs in northern and Metropolitan Essex plus some other recently uncovered family connections which I shall post later