Dear Leah, I am one of those people who use ancestry.com and yes I am paying a small fee for it, but find it is worth it! The advantage of using this site is you have access to all the population census, social security, land deeds, historical documents --just to name a few of the government records available.There are old maps, information on how counties and states were made and when. The search engine is incredible and gives you tons of information on leads that you probably would have never found anywhere else. The forms available for me to use are very helpful also! All of this information is available at one sight instead of searching tons of sites, It is a time saver for me too because I do not live close to any Historical / Family Center Libraries where I can do the research. You are given a choice to submit you family tree if you want to. I have not - I feel that one should not submit information until all the information has been documented. The flip side of that is, through the information that the people have sent, I have found connections to the families I have researched. I would say for the small fee that I pay to Ancestry.com is well worth it!! I hope this helps you to understand some of the reasons why we choose to use the .com (s) that are available for us on the internet. Sincerely, Pam