I am sure this has probably been addressed before, but I am wondering what the opinion of the list is, pertaining to the "best" and most "informative" site for searching is? It could be very expensive to subsribe to them all to try, but I need to know which one is the better informed and most helpful? I haven't been into this very long.......so some of you ole' timers might help????? Or is there one that has as much info that is free? Thanks, Cathey

Cathe125@aol.com wrote: >pertaining to the "best" and most "informative" site >for searching is? It could be very expensive to subsribe to them all to try, >but I need to know which one is the better informed and most helpful? I >haven't been into this very long... >Or is there one that has as much info that is free? >Thanks, Cathey > > > It's very tempting to subscribe to one of these companies in the hope of getting fast information, but you should keep in mind that by their very nature, they are subject to many errors and still not to be considered primary evidence in your research. Haste makes waste. There's a tremendous amount of at least equally good free resources available through sites connected with Rootsweb, the USGenWeb, and countless others, not to mention the free lookups available through the 26,904 mailing lists on Rootsweb and the thousands of other mailing lists available through Yahoo groups and others. You can now even access images of almost all US census records for free via remote access from home to Heritage Quest Online through various libraries. If your financial resources are limited and you "haven't been doing this very long", I would stick to the free sites as long as possible and save my limited finances for such things as the best record-keeping software you can get (I prefer TMG), good reference books for your home that you can't find online, obtaining primary documents such as birth, death, and marriage certificates, copies of military records, etc. (all of which have rising fees), copies of courthouse records, memberships in the most advantageous genealogical organizations for you, and much, much more. There is much to be found in primary documents and books that cannot be found in indices of them online, not the least of which is the positive proof that only a primary document can give. As you research more and more you'll find that it's not at all difficult when you run into a bump in the road to simply change directions temporarily and still utilize free resources to make significant progress in your research and result in a truly quality product. Diane