Earlier this year the Family History Centers stopped offering free access to ancestry.com as the company was sold and the new management rescinded the agreement that the FHC had with ancestry.com to offer free access to their library patrons.

I have heard on another genealogy group that they will now begin offering the following online resources:

a.. Heritage Quest Online
b.. World Vital Records
c.. Godfrey Memorial Library

You will need to verify this in your local area. While these online DBs are not as comprehensive as ancestry.com, it is still another genealogy resource available to use.

Charlie

If this is true, then this is great. I have heard a lot of great things about Heritage Quest. I can't wait to call my FHC.

Thanks for sharing this with us Charlie.

I heard that Paul Allen (one of the MS founders) owns Heritage Quest and is making this available -- not sure if he is also involved with the other DBs as well --- this has been in the works since ancestry.com pulled the plug

Has this begun already? Or is it still being discussed? This is exciting news - thanks!

It was available at my local FHC (Valley Forge) last week, but the volunteers had limited knowledge of how to use it --- there are 3 new Databases available -- American Heritage offers Census data, but it does not have as many years available as Ancestry --- there is also a library plus one other ----- all three are nowhere as comprehensive as Ancestry, but it is free. Maybe the FHL will work with them to offer more data. American Heritage is owned by Paul Allen who was a Microsoft founder with really deep pockets [although he is also well known for making bad investments;-)]

Additional info on 3 Databases available:

a - Heritage Quest Online
b - World Vital Records
c - Godfrey Memorial Library