This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/CBB.2ACE/5115.2.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Hello, Florene, The site you are on right now is "free' to you in the sense that the information we and others exchange here has no price tag. If you go to the main Knox Co. or any county web pages, you will find all sorts of birth, death, marriage, census and other information they have posted free for your use. However, obtaining of Wills, birth records, death certificates from the State of KY or from any private party is NOT free. There are research fees and copying and mailing fees to be borne by someone. There are always costs attached whether one likes to think of it that way or not. I have paid out hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years for census and marriage books, for birth and death CD's, etc. etc. One also pays to subscribe to services such as Ancestry.com. I share what I have paid for with others who do not have those things when they make 'public' postings and I think I can help them. I am not the only one who does this. Many help each other in a variety of ways. I have no idea where you live but make the assumption you are new at this. The first thing you need to do is to either purchase or download a free genealogy program from the LDS site or from Ancestry.com or some other place. That way you can begin to organize what you have. If you live close to your research in KY, then the next best thing to free is your OWN time and efforts in going to the courthouses, genealogical societies and doing your own research. Find out where your local LDS Family learn to use their services which are free. Costs to rent their microfilm is relatively inexpensive - - abt. $3.50 per roll a month. Most all of us who have done research for any length of time have spent time in the courthouses, in the cemeteries, writing letters, searching on line, whatever it takes to get the information they need. The very, very old information is often very difficult to come by and the very, very new information (such as births, marriages, etc. that have occurred past 1920 or 1930 ) is the same because there are few easily obtainable public records and NO census records past the 1930 recently released. Joyce Taylor Collins La Palma, CA