Scott, I've had a paid membership at Ancestry since sometime in the 1990s. There is still "free" access to Ancestry, but you are limited in what you can see. You can see family trees that are marked "Public," so you should be able to see your own tree, but you would not see any "shaky leaf hints" associated with the tree. Certain databases are free to everyone to view, but most databases require a paid membership to view.

You could always sign up for a 14-day free trial. You have to give them a credit card number and if you don't cancel before the end of the 14th day, your card will be charged and your membership extended.

Yes, I have found quite a bit of information on FamilySearch.org that isn't available on Ancestry.com. But, they are joining forces more and more.

Be aware when you search on FamilySearch.org that there are quite a few databases where FS will have the text index of a record but when you click to view the image you are taken to Ancestry and if you don't have a paid membership you won't see the image (unless the image is from one of the free-to-everyone databases).

More and more databases are being made free to everyone, but they are the somewhat newly transcribed databases that were (and are) part of the World Archives Project.

I don't know if you can access it through your library where you live in the US but I can access all of Ancestry through my local library from home.

Lindsey, I can still see what I assembled in 2007 and did as many shaky leafs available back then.

Now 10 years later I have tons more leaves but can't get any info on them. So I can't go back over 200 years like I want to.

Elizabeth, never heard of familysearch.org. Will it import info from ancestry or do I have to start over?

Scott, that's what I meant when I said you wouldn't be able to see any of the hints associated with the tree. Since you don't have a paid membership, you cannot access the documents associated with the hints.

You should go to the FamilySearch.org site and scroll down to the bottom of the page. In the lower right-hand corner there is a square that is labeled Family History Centers and in the square there is a link to Find a center. There is bound to be at least one within a reasonable distance. Although this is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, their genealogy (Family History) centers are open and free to everyone. The people that work in the centers are extremely helpful. You will find that they have a ton of information right there, as well as computers to access all of their information.

Do you happen to have Family Tree Maker software? It's been around since the late 1980s and for the last several years has been owned by Ancestry. But, Ancestry announced that they were no longer going to update or support the software, so MacKiev, the company that made the version for Mac computers, bought it and is coming out with a new version next week. That new version will integrate information from FamilySearch.org as well as from Ancestry.com.

"I don't know if you can access it through your library where you live in the US but I can access all of Ancestry through my local library from home."

There are many databases that are NOT accessible or available in libraries. The library version is not as full as the paid version.

No ancestry software here. :-(

It also gets harder the farther back I go.

I'd like to go as far back as Adam & Eve. Or close to that era!

If you have the time, you might 'gift' yourself a short membership. I told dh Ancestry is what I wanted for Christmas and I got a six month subscription. I work on it almost daily. I'm putting together a family book. Mine won't stretch back as many generations because I'm focusing on pictures and stories going back from my grandparents and great grandparents. If I can preserve and share that segment of information, then I've accomplished something.

Found out much more from FamilySearch.org than I have from ancestry. Used to be able to find so many things for free that ancestry has bought up and I always refused to pay them, my sil wanted a dna kit for Christmas and somehow I got a free trial with ancestry...very disappointed with it too. It really irks me, but, that is the way it is. Genweb used to be great but it seems to have sold out to ancestry as well.

I've gotten offers for up to 50% off Ancestry.com. Maybe you can wait it out until one of those comes along.

I did get a lot from FamilySearch.org and had progressed pretty far with that. The free census, marriage and other records are very useful. Since I really want pictures and stories, Ancestry has been more useful lately. Another website, you might look at is FindAGrave. Sometimes you can locate relatives through that. I've found a few.

Scott, I just have to ask....regarding your comment about wanting to go as far back as Adam and Eve, or that era....were you serious when you said that?

Ok, I know you weren't, but how far back do you hope to find written records of your family? Keep up the effort and you'll likely find some open doors to your family history.

Is there a search from Ellis Island? I'm not sure if there is one, but I thought there was.

Got a 50% off offer email from Ancestry.com today.

Scott, I think your thoughts are unreasonable. After all, Ancestry has costs associated with all the gathering of information. I know that in my case, in the last couple of years they have added a lot of records. I have searched for years to find some info on my family and just recently was able to find my great grandfather in some records that were just added.

Linda_6 asked, "Is there a search from Ellis Island? I'm not sure if there is one, but I thought there was."

Yes, Ellis Island has a Passenger Search. You have to create a FREE account (username and password) before you will be able to see the actual manifests.

For several years, the manifests were two pages, and often the second page appears first. So be sure to check both directions.

Kris_zone6 -- I agree with you that Ancestry can't exist if everything were free to everyone (after all, think of the network servers and storage capacity they have to maintain [and continually increase the storage capacity as more and more databases come online]. And undoubtedly they paid to have many, many databases microfilmed and transcribed. But, more and more databases are online at Ancestry on a free-to-all basis because of the volunteer Ancestry Archives Project. It may very well be that the records you recently found on your great-grandfather were in one of the new free databases.