Some months ago ProQuest merged with Heritage Quest, taking over the database operations. Heritage Creations then bought back Heritage Quest retail operations from proQuest. It is not clear if retail operations included access to Internet databases available through institutional subscriptions (libraries, etc. ) . There are a lot of US public libraries that allow free access to Heritage Quest for library card holders -- I know that our library in Colorado Springs does and we use that database fairly often by logging into the library system on the Internet. All list members who enjoy acces to Heritage Quest ships list indexes and US census databases should make certain that you are not going to lose access to that service in the near future. Check with your HQ database server. If Heritage Quest / ProQuest database access is still available you may want to complete the searches you know you want to make as soon as possible. Or you might consider purchasing the database CDs if they are available. The following announcement by Godfrey Library concerns access to Heritage Quest on line at that center. This may have something to do with the Heritage Creations bankruptcy or it may be for other reasons. For example, ProQuest may have increased subscription fees too much or privacy limitations .may have made access too complex. The following appeared in Eastman's Genealogy Newsletter: NOTE that a description of the database content is available at the URL at the end of the announcement. That website has links to a lot of other valuable genealogy URLs Karen January 31, 2006 Update: HeritageQuest Online On December 28, I published an announcement stating that the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, Connecticut, is in the process of dropping HeritageQuest Online from its portfolio of offerings. This caused a lot of consternation amongst genealogists, as this had been a very popular offering for the Library. Many genealogists had joined the Godfrey Memorial Library's membership program for $35 a year solely for the purpose of accessing HeritageQuest Online and its many excellent databases of census records, digitized genealogy and local history books, Revolutionary War pensions, and more. That's a bit ironic as most Americans already could obtain free access to the same databases. The few that cannot find free access can obtain access via several other providers for $35 a year or less. In the discussion board on http://www.eogn.com, newsletter reader Chris Dunham wrote: Has anyone thought of maintaining a list online of participating libraries and societies? Maybe an entry for HeritageQuest Online could be added to the Encyclopedia of Genealogy so that visitors could add (or delete, as necessary) access points. I thought Chris' suggestion was a good one so I created such a page and added information about 40 such libraries. Since then, that page has been updated hundreds of times by other newsletter readers. That page on the Encyclopedia of Genealogy now provides a very long list of libraries that offer free, in-home access to HeritageQuest Online. It also lists nine more organizations that provide in-home access for a fee. Five of them do so for less than $40 a year. You can find this long list on the Encyclopedia of Genealogy at http://www.eogen.com/HeritageQuestOnline