Ancestry did not necessarily get most of their stuff for free. They have hired transcribers to transcribe the records so that they can be searched. They do use volunteer transcribers for some projects - I'm one of them. What most people don't realize is how expensive it is to host a website whether it be "free" or a paid membership. Every website needs disk space, the computer servers, network connections, electricity and a data center where the server is housed. While we have not had to pay to use the message boards on rootsweb, they certainly haven't been free. They are paid for by donations and the irritating advertisements that you see whenever you access the site. It costs $ for the electricity and network (phone line) everytime a visitor goes to a home page, clicks a button or hits the enter key to obtain any type of information. People need to realize that the "free" sites aren't really free - somebody is paying for the infrastructure that makes that site possible so that people can have access to the information. If you happen to patronize any of the advertisers, then in a round about way, you are paying for the site.

My understanding was that those hired transcribers were outside the US - mainly Asian countries - which is why there are so darn many mistakes with the English names. Not sure how accurate that is - but would help explain some of the errors I have found - <<<Ancestry did not necessarily get most of their stuff for free. They have hired transcribers to transcribe the records so that they can be searched. They do use volunteer transcribers for some projects - I'm one of them. >>>