I have never responded to comments on this list, however the messages regarding "free" genealogy prompted me two throw in my two cents. I have been tracing my family trees for over 20 years. I can remember a time when I spent hours at the courthouses, LDS library, National Archives, etc going through microfilm, fiche and dusty books looking for records of my ancestors. I spent "money" for gasoline, parking, babysitters, photocopies, food, postage, etc. When genealogy reserach hit the internet I was thrilled. With a few clicks of the keyboard there was the possiblility of asking another researcher a question and getting a reply in minutes instead of weeks. The internet's greatest genealogical assets were the USGenWeb project and Rootsweb. Information at these sites was free, but that does not mean that they didn't have a price. Someone had to pay for the computer equipment, servers, and internet access. Volunteers that transcribed records had to pay for many of the fiche's, microfilm, books, etc out of their own pocket. I ask myself, how grateful am I to all the people who have contributed to this effort? The answer is VERY! So what! Grateful and a dollar will buy me a cup of coffee. What do you and I give back to keep genealogy "free". Ask yourselves, what have I contributed? Have I transcribed any "public" records and donated them to the USGenWeb or other free genealogical site? Have I created and maintained a free web site on the internet for other researchers? If the answer is "no" then shame on you and shame on me. We take, but we don't give. If we want public information to stay free, then we all have an obligation to contribute. The alternatives are to get in our cars and drive where ever there is a record we need and dig it out for ourselves, buy or rent that roll of microfilm (don't forget the reader) and spend hours searching for that one ancestor on poor quality film just to find out later that he moved from that county a month earlier. No, not me. Been there, done that. I'll gladly pay for a copy of a will I saw indexed online and when it arrives, transcribe it, and donate to the online community. But I expect everyone else to do the same thing. Do you? As for Ancestry.com! I too have a regular membership, plus the census images subscription. Perhaps it is the increase in subscribers, but there has been a major problem in the area of online census images, i.e.broken links, records not available or the server is very slow in responding. I have written my share of e-mails complaining of the problems. And I do think they have an obligation to compensate in some manner the subscribers. I guess if I get real unhappy I can cancel my subscription and wait for them to get things better organized. Happy hunting! Lynda