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Archiver > VAFAUQUI > 2005-06 > 1119402528


From: "Paul Redden" <>
Subject: RE: [VAFAUQUI] Heritage Quest vs Ancestry
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:08:48 -0400
In-Reply-To: <BAY106-F19CD942E5823AC08132D51D4E80@phx.gbl>


I used to be a member of both Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com and there were
differences at the time but It seems that they are merging everything now
and I can really only afford to join one of them again. I am leaning
towards Ancestry but only because I had found them much better in the past.

Your post gives me a reason to join the fauquier library. Even though I
live in Fauquier County, The Hadley Library in Winchester is the same
distance and has a much better genealogy collection so I usually either just
go there or to the Warren County Library in Front Royal which is only about
15 miles away. None of them let you borrow most genealogy books so I
haven't gotten a membership but they would both honor one from Fauquier.
The clsest Family History Center I know of is two counties away in
Centerville and hardly worth the drive, especially if there is a chance I
could get cought in Washington's rush hour traffic.

The only problem with HeritageQuest at home, through a library membership,
is they check the ISP of the site you are coming from to make sure you are
coming from a member library. This doesn't work with firewalls or Satalite
Internet connections. We have very poor phone connections here and when I
inquire about cable or DSN connection I am told that they have decided it
would be too expensive for them to provide us with that service here so they
have decided not to even consider providing it in the future. Trying to
browse census images using a 24k baud phone connection (usually the best I
can get) can be close to torture. That's what I get for living on a
mountain :).

Are you related to the Greens in Markham?

Paul Redden



>From: "Carolyn Green" <>
>To:
>Subject: [VAFAUQUI] Heritage Quest vs Ancestry
>Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 19:56:43 -0400
>
>Many libraries offer off-site access to Heritage Quest to their patrons. I
>know that the Prince William, Fauquier and Culpeper libraries do locally.
>Heritage Quest has the complete census, but not all are indexed and some
>have only the head of household indexed. They also offer books, searchable
>by name or location. They have PERSI, the index to magazine articles. And
>they have Revolutionary War pensions, indexed and viewable as images.
> If your local library does not offer remote access, Heritage Quest is
>available through the Godfrey Memorial Library for $35.00 per year. They
>have other offerings, also.
> Ancestry has the complete census online, indexed.They are adding the
>mortality schedules for 1850-1880. They also modified the slave schedules
>for 1850 and 1860. They have a U. S. records subscription, with data such
>as early Virginia marriages, including Fauquier.A new database is the WWI
>draft cards, indexed and viewable. They have an Immigration subscription,
>with indexes and images of the pre-Ellis Island New York records. They are
>adding other ports. I recently found the image of my grandfather's manifest
>in Philadelphia in 1907. The Family Books subscription offers similar
>records to Heritage Quest, but their image viewer is much better. I also
>like the fact that one can go to the list of books and just browse titles.
>They have, for example, Fauquier during the Proprietorship. Another thing
>one can do at Ancestry is go to each state and check out what databases are
>available for that state. They also off an Historical Newspaper
>subscription.
> I use both constantly. Sometimes the census images are much better at
>one site than the other. Sometimes the indexes are better.
> Genealogy.com has much the same offerings. Their census is similar to
>that of Heritage Quest. They have a lot of Family Tree Maker CDs online.
>But their search engine is terrible. A search on a common name produces way
>too many hits and there is no way to add location to cut down the results.
>Also, the name has to be spelled exactly as indexed. There is no wild card
>provision. I doubt I will renew my subscription.
> As you can tell, I am an Ancestry fan. They are constantly adding new
>information. If you have Heritage Quest through your local library or
>Godfrey Memorial, you might want to add the U. S. Records collection at
>Ancestry and perhaps their census subscription.
>Carolyn
>
>
>
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