04 January 2014

The genealogy websites I subscribe to: wrapping up the list

See the first post in this series:
The genealogy websites I subscribe to: Ancestry.com's new World Explorer Plus Membership

I also carry current subscriptions to the following sites:

GenealogyBank.com, until 03/03/2014 (renews annually)
This site has proven valuable to what I do on a consistent basis, and will likely stay in my subscriptions for a long time. I wish the major historical Newspaper websites would buy each other up, so I could get everything I need in one place. This newspaper-specific site has proven the most useful though, for a wide range of localities. Other major newspaper sites include NewspaperArchive.com, Newspapers.com (part of World Explorer Plus), and ProQuest. If I needed to cut back, I would drop Newspapers.com first. I hope that carrying a subscription will help fund them to acquire more papers.

MyHeritage.com, data and site, until 03/1-2/2014
To be honest, I subscribed to this and never put enough time into it to even try getting my money's worth out of it. I do genealogy about every day, but just haven't had a compelling reason to use this website yet because there are not any services or collections that I need for my research. If I was a beginner, I'd seriously consider dropping the other subscriptions and going with just this one though.

Formerly, I've also subscribed to NewspaperArchive, Findmypast.com, and several people finder websites (I still subscribe to one of those, but you can pick any you like).

Actually, I hope you don't use my list to make up your mind about what to subscribe to. This has not been meant as a review, just a list of my subscriptions.

Sometimes I subscribe because there are records I need to search, and once-in-awhile I subscribe just to support the website and test it out for a year or two. I also do pay-per-view on RootsIreland.ie and ScotlandsPeople.com as well as other sites. A couple of the societies I belong to also have online content I can access as a paying member such as the Ulster Historical Foundation and the Maryland Genealogical Society. 

The websites I use the most are FamilySearch.org (free) and Ancestry.com. You can access Ancestry.com for free at Family History Centers and many libraries. The majority of my research for personal and business purposes is actually offline though. I do a lot of in-person paper and microfilm research, as well as requesting other genealogists to search records on site in far away locations. For the first few years of my research efforts, Ancestry.com helped me a ton to piece together my recent ancestry. It was well worth it, and I still need them enough to keep the subscription. These days though, all the census records and many others are free on FamilySearch.org and available under other conditions on many more websites.

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