Dear Ann You are very sensible to do thorough research before parting with your hard earned cash, but unfortunately (as I am sure you realise!), there is no simple answer to your question. The "best" records are the ones in which you are most interested, and these vary from person to person. If you have a lot of London ancestors then Ancestry is hard to beat at the moment, thanks to its collaboration with the London Metropolitan Archives in digitising their holdings of parish registers and poor law records (the latter are unindexed and incomplete but are a marvellous resource). FindmyPast has some useful stuff, particularly through its links with the Federation of Family History Societies, which gives access to a wealth of non-London parish register material (though these are transcriptions only). It is also the only subscription site which currently offers access to the full 1911 census. The Genealogist gives you access to transcriptions and images of non-conformist and non-parochial registers which are very handy if you have a lot of dissenting ancestors, and they also have a near-complete index and images of PCC wills. The latter are invaluable if your ancestors were comfortably off, and the ability to check out a large number of wills for "free" is very attractive. The 3.5GBP cost to download them from TNA is very reasonable, but this soon mounts up when you need to look at half a dozen or so! Both of the sites you mention do, of course, have transcriptions and images of the 1841-1901 censuses and facilities to search the GRO indices, though for the latter you really can't beat good old FreeBMD, unless your interest lies with more recent events. So you really are going to have to get yourself organised before you take the plunge. Have a good look at your research as it currently stands - where are the gaps and what kind of records might exist to fill them in? Organise "to-do" lists according to type of records and their location, just as one used to have to do when all research involved travel to often distant repositories. Then you can purchase short-term subscriptions, one at a time, to the suppliers who offer the best deal for what you need. An imperfect answer, I know. Many of us are fortunate (or foolish!) enough to subscribe to multiple sites, and the price can seem quite outrageous until you consider the alternative costs of travel, overnight accommodation etc to see the records in their original locations. It comes down to budgeting, in the end - to setting yourself a monthly or annual limit on what you are prepared to spend on your hobby, then sticking to it. Best wishes Caroline > > Good morning, > I would like some ideas as to which of the pay sites has the best > records available. > I have looked at The Genealogist and Find my Past so far. > I don't want to spend the money and then be disappointed. > kind regards, > Ann Davenport