I understand the concern about a cost for rootsweb (which I must admit I haven't heard from any other site other than this one) especially since we were all told would continue to be free to all when acquired by ancestry.com many years ago. For that I feel we have the right to feel misled if it is true. However, with regard to charges by ancestry.com, of course no one has to subscribe. I work at a college that is currently researching the costs of scanning documents. We are not talking campus-wide, but a small area of a small to midsize college, and the costs are coming in a minimum of $70,000 plus personnel. The cost of server space to house such an endeavor is quite expensive, as are the programmers or software packages that allow it to run. Most smaller college software packages cost over $2M - and that is without all the implementation costs to get it working and the annual licensing costs. I can't even imagine the costs for ancestry.com on the scale that they have. I am so relieved that they have been able to access many records that I can't reach, either because of the costs of gas (whether by car or plane), with the hotel and food costs while I am there, or just because I have no idea where to begin looking. They have also provided a great gathering place for those who may have information for me, like I have information for them. Otherwise, we would continue to do what we did many years ago--comb phone books (which fewer people are included in any more), write lots of letters that go unanswered, try to run down family members who somehow got custody of the family bible, or hope to find the last living relative who remembers some very necessary piece of information. I'm sure many who subscribe are like me, willing to share particular bits of information with others who can't afford access or who are not near a library that can still afford the staff to house census records and other information. I will be the first to admit that I cringe when I get the bill. I also sit down and do a cost/benefit study to see if it is still worth it to me. It still is. The time may come when I no longer benefit proportionally or when I just plain can't afford it. I really hate to see that time come. Meanwhile, I'm using it as much as I can. Bottom line is, please don't be too critical of ancestry.com for their subscription services. Be critical as you want for their countering their written statement to us many years ago that rootsweb will continue to be free. However, I intend to write ancestry.com to make sure that what we are hearing is true and ask them why, if so, they went back on the original commitment. There might be a very good reason - or maybe not.