Is your public library online? Does it have a subscription to Heritage Quest? Many libraries do although it is often not well publicized. If your library is a subscriber and is online you can get some great free information from your home. You may need to contact your library for your user name and password. Often the user name is built in and the password is your library card number. Heritage Quest provides access to the ProQuest Historical Newspapers New York Times 1851-1998 Database and to Heritage Quest Online which includes all census images through 1930 and an incredible searchable collection of over 25,000 old family and local histories. This is a growing database. Currently the indexed censuses available are 1790-1820 and 1860-1870, 1890 [what there is of it]-1920. [Keep in mind the 1880 census is available to search at www.familysearch.org although the images are not free.] The books are mind boggling. There are now 7932 family histories, 12049 local histories and 260 primary sources. Both the indexed censuses and the book collection are searchable. Cheryl Rothwell logancty@mindspring.com Logan County, IL, Coordinator, ILGenWeb www.rootsweb.com/~illogan Central IL Regional Coordinator, ILGenWeb Clark, Downing, Harding, Lucas et al