>I have both Ancestry, and Genealogy.com, because the census indexing >is completely different for each. The short answer is that if a >census year is indexed on Ancestry.com, it is not indexed on >genealogy.com. So therefore, for the 1870, 1900 and 1910 census >records, I need genealogy.com for the indexes. I'm not sure why you >do not like the census records of Ancestry, but you will find that >the indexes on Genealogy.com are LESS flexible. On Genealogy.com, >You can not use wildcard searches. >You can not search for a particular surname by county. >You can not search for one particular given name by county. >You can not enter search parameters for age, place of birth, etc. > >There may be other differences that do not immediately come to mind. > >Glee <gleemc@earthlink.net> The entities (Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, Heritage Quest Online, familysearch.org, and the U.S. GenWeb) offering censuses online (free or by paid subscription) have up to now done an outstanding job of working to compliment one another's services, providing researchers the most complete availability as fast as possible while keeping them all in business without too much competition until the work is all done. Regardless of what they say, as the census work by the paid companies nears completion, I expect the acquisition of Genealogy.com by Ancestry.com will eventually mean the merger of many of their services. Heritage Quest offers all the complete census images except 1900, so you can browse through any of them at will. In doing so, you can also easily find a specific image if you have the series, roll, and page numbers, or by selecting the year, state, county, and location (precinct, township, etc.). HQ has completed indices for 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1860, 1870, 1890 (what little exists), 1910 and 15 states of 1920. When they get 1920 done, they will follow with 1930, and presumably complete the earlier ones after that. Of course, the indices of pre-1850 censuses are limited to heads of households, as were the censuses. The indices for 1870, 1910, and presumably whatever is left in 1890, are heads of households and individuals in a household who are not part of the immediate nuclear family unit (head of household, spouse, & children). In other words, senior parents, adult siblings of the head of household, servants, boarders, etc. are usually found indexed separately. I do not believe Heritage Quest offers either wildcard searches or soundex searches. It *does* allow for searches for only a given name (or even single initial) without any surname (even allowing single initial searches for surnames where it perhaps couldn't be read), as well as providing an advanced search option for searches by county; specific "location" (such as township or precinct); and with specific search parameters for age, sex, race, and/or birthplace for searches from 1850 forward. (Ironically, they say from 1850 forward, but they don't have the 1850, 1880, or 1900 census indexed. Heritage Quest also includes images of over 25,000 family and local history books, including many city directories and very old references. Many public libraries now offer free remote access to Heritage Quest (from your home computer) through the library website, usually using your library card number to sign in. The licensing contract libraries have with Ancestry.com will only permit in-library access (which significantly limits the library's service to its elderly and disabled patrons, but no doubt would cut down significantly on individual subscriptions to Ancestry.com) Heritage Quest/ProQuest only offers 'professional' subscriptions, and as such, in my opinion you get a much more 'professional' level of quality (and accuracy) in the product. Richard Pence has mentioned that HQ uses the same indices as Genealogy.com, but my experience has nevertheless been that of encountering and hearing of many more errors in Genealogy.com and especially on Ancestry.com. In all fairness, that might be a result of more people using those services since they offer individual subscriptions; but after years of using HQ, I only just encountered my first indexing error on HQ a few days ago. If your own public library does not offer Heritage Quest yet, you should encourage them to do so. In the meantime, a little effort spent checking all the hits you get on Google.com by searching for ["Heritage Quest Online" + library} will very likely result in one that will let you in for free; or a library that offers it to paying library patrons such as was mentioned just last week: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society for $60, or the Godfrey Library in Connecticut for $35, either of which I would consider much better than Ancestry.com. When checking those library hits you get on google.com, make sure to go all the way in past the search screen, and make sure you try from home both links the library provides for access (in library and remote), since things aren't always as they appear to be. Sometimes, the one for remote access requires a card number to be entered, while the in-house one lets you right in, whether you are actually in the library or not. Diane genmail@1st.net