To Pay or Not To Pay? That is Quite the Question!

If you have even done this for a few days, those of you who have done this for years, have seen the changes both for the better and not better on the wallet. Technology has made finding records, from far away, much easier, but now it seems that certain sites 'monopolize' information we have access to. So, where does that leave us?

Well, for me, I get SUPER frustrated every time I type in a search engine, a family name, it shows records are available, then it happens.... For 24.99 a month/9.99 a month/30 days free but you must enter your credit card information and so on and so on....sigh. There are local historical societies one can access microfiche, but for I would say the majority of us, at some point in our histories we have a emigration situation and/or family who moved to and fro across the country. So, what do we do?

If money isn't an problem, I definitely do not fit in this category, then you can find sites that are a wealth of information and maybe a few months of subscriptions to one at a time until you exhaust, collect and move on to the next sites information. That is definitely what I am doing, as for right now, Ancestry.com seems to be still providing information for me. I have run across some other sites that I have on 'the list' as possible later day places to use for information.

Key information, census records, marriage/birth/death certificates, military records, apprenticeship records, ship records, obituaries, family, bibles, headstone/cemetery records, newspaper articles, books, local genealogy societies, church records, magazine publications seem to be a wealth of information and good places to start when looking for information. Tomorrow I will talk about how I got started and how that has evolved over the last few months.

So, what is your past worth? One has to decide what parts of their past they are willing to 'pay' for, and then make ways to see it happen. I do WISH these sites weren't SO expensive, I get the costs of running a business, servers storage, websites, and on and on, but I also understand that they are selling MY, and your, family information, so I have very MIXED feelings about them being able to do that. As with most things in this world, it comes down to the almighty dollar, pound, yen, Euro, and we all are left debating is it really worth it. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer, but I think it is a personal journey into our pasts and right now, there are ways, but they are not easy, around the costs.

Happy hunting,

~Alisha