Dear Friends, I discovered this long ago and am reposting. If you are a NYS resident, you can access NYS records only, for free on Ancestry.com. http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_ancestry.shtml Once you enter a NYS zip code, you are lead to a list of a list of NYS Records. I found the above by clicking around links. NOTE: Residents of other states may have similar or other free access to G research sites. For example, all Connecticut public libraries offer free Heritage Quest access. If you are unfamiliar with HQ, you can search census records through them. Happy 2015, Barb