Valene, honestly, the very best place to look at records were on the old films. It was time consuming and tedious, but I doubt I would have found the people in my families without it. Our FHL has packed all of them away and relies on Ancestry totally now, and it is annoying, because besides name being spelled various ways, even when I have put in names spelled a different way on the Castle Gardens site, they have not come up. And if you don't know the name of the ship......which most of us don't.......you can't be sure. Ellis Island on the other hand has excellent records, but they are later. Not sure what you mean by institutional Ancestry? Do you mean that FHL and other genealogy sites might have more records? I doubt that, but I gave up my personal subscription on Ancestry after 3-4 years, and of course they add things almost daily. I will have to ask the people at FHL about that. A friend of mine had a very nice experience yesterday and reminds one about paying it forward in genealogy. She has been searching for the first wife of a relative for a long time, her aunt was the second. She found an obit on Ancestry and called the funeral home to see what info she could get. The guy she spoke to was MORE than helpful. He found all kinds of info for her and solved the mystery of the first wife more than she ever imagined. I had the same experience once on an obit from a small town in Nevada. The gal sent me info on everyone in the family I was researching.......and a living relative. Had the opposite happen one time where they didn't want to let any info out, but once in awhile you get very lucky. Good luck as you continue your search. The more you get the more you want, right? KathyB ____________________________________________________________ Groupon&#8482 Official Site 1 ridiculously huge coupon a day. Get 50-90% off your city's best! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4dee96214d2d7304aa1st05duc