Despite the myriad duplications, your numbers are important, Tom, just as
would be similar, though greater, lists of the records available at the
giant libraries and LDS.  As are those MANY other sites, Ancestry is
important, and in some cases provides access to records that otherwise would
be difficult for many to personally access.  

However the problem is not what is there, it is what about the countless
millions of sources that are not there, and how can anyone ever know what is
missing??  Plus, those fees are beyond the purse of VERY many of those of us
who enjoy this hobby.

I think a summary of our several ideas posted here is important.  So, if you
can afford it, have a pay-for program that has the censuses available. If
you can not afford it, attack the problems the old fashioned way; that is,
make connections with those societies that are to be found there and with
the researchers who live in the area, have access to, and understand the
records that are available at that ancestral "where".  Short of hiring a
accomplished professional, it is only those local people can guide you
through the peculiar record problems that always are present (and there are
tens of thousands of those), and then exhaust what is there that relates to
your search. 

Enough of the subject for me.  It has been fun.

Paul    



---Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Excalibur131
....Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Family researches online

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