I haven't bought any CD's from Ancestry.com but I have bought a large number of them from an outfit called Heritage Quest. They're easy to use and I've enjoyed my experience with them. The quality of the images depends very much on the quality of the microfilms from which they are made but most of them are pretty good. With the self-contained viewer program which comes on each CD, you can manipulate the images by magnifying them or adjusting other characteristics such as light and contrast. They do not have a name index or a search for name capability but you can jump from page to page in a flash so I like using them much better than using microfilm. The 1790 census fits an entire state on one CD but for later years, as the population increased, more CD's are required. By the time you get to the 1900 census, there's usually only one or two counties per CD.The CD's are keyed to the microfilm so you can usually figure that you need the same number of CD's as you would need microfilm rolls. In one or two cases, I had to order two CD's to get all of one county but most often, I only needed one CD for a county for each census. Depending on the situation, I was lucky to get 2 or 3 counties I was interested in on just one CD. When I started, I wanted to order about 20 C.D.'s priced at $19.95 for a total of $399.00. The company was offering a "buy 3, get 1 free" deal and I found that by taking a one year membership, I could save another $5.00 per CD. I wound up getting the CD's for $225.00 plus about $59.00 for the membership. I later ordered more CD's at the same savings and let the membership lapse after I had built my collection. That's something you should consider if you want to buy a large number of CD's. When I checked the web site a few minutes ago, they were still offering the buy 3, get1 free deal and a $5 discount for members. Even without a membership, you can get the CD's right now for about $15.00 each if you buy at least three. I have no affiliation with this company; I'm simply a satisfied customer who would recommend that anyone consider their products. They have a great many other quality products besides the census CD's. When I was doing the homework about 18 months ago, they had the best deal around. I've not checked lately to see if anyone else (including Ancestry.com) is offering a better deal. If you want to check them out before you buy from Ancestry.com, here's the web address: http://www.heritagequest.com

Hi! Thanks so much for the response and the URL. It appears that this is more likely what I want than the CDs offered by Ancestry. Thanks again! Frances Researching: JONES, BELL, STATON, HOUSE, PEER, DEARING, ALEXANDER, WHITE ----- Original Message ----- From: <Khryses@aol.com> To: <NCEDGECO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2001 8:06 PM Subject: Re: [NCEDGECO] Census CDs fom Ancestry.Com > I haven't bought any CD's from Ancestry.com but I have bought a large number > of them from an outfit called Heritage Quest. They're easy to use and I've > enjoyed my experience with them. The quality of the images depends very much > on the quality of the microfilms from which they are made but most of them > are pretty good. With the self-contained viewer program which comes on each > CD, you can manipulate the images by magnifying them or adjusting other > characteristics such as light and contrast. They do not have a name index or > a search for name capability but you can jump from page to page in a flash so > I like using them much better than using microfilm. > > The 1790 census fits an entire state on one CD but for later years, as the > population increased, more CD's are required. By the time you get to the > 1900 census, there's usually only one or two counties per CD.The CD's are > keyed to the microfilm so you can usually figure that you need the same > number of CD's as you would need microfilm rolls. In one or two cases, I had > to order two CD's to get all of one county but most often, I only needed one > CD for a county for each census. Depending on the situation, I was lucky to > get 2 or 3 counties I was interested in on just one CD. > > When I started, I wanted to order about 20 C.D.'s priced at $19.95 for a > total of $399.00. The company was offering a "buy 3, get 1 free" deal and I > found that by taking a one year membership, I could save another $5.00 per > CD. I wound up getting the CD's for $225.00 plus about $59.00 for the > membership. I later ordered more CD's at the same savings and let the > membership lapse after I had built my collection. That's > something you should consider if you want to buy a large number of CD's. > When I checked the web site a few minutes ago, they were still offering the > buy 3, get1 free deal and a $5 discount for members. Even without a > membership, you can get the CD's right now for about $15.00 each if you buy > at least three. > > I have no affiliation with this company; I'm simply a satisfied customer who > would recommend that anyone consider their products. They have a great many > other quality products besides the census CD's. When I was doing the > homework about 18 months ago, they had the best deal around. I've not > checked lately to see if anyone else (including Ancestry.com) is offering a > better deal. If you want to check them out before you buy from Ancestry.com, > here's the web address: > > http://www.heritagequest.com >