Free Access to Ancestry.com

[Dennis Heaton]

Discover how deep your American roots go by searching our U.S. Census Collections FREE through July 6th.

Free Access*

U.S. Census Collections (1790-1940)

How red, white, and blue are you?

With more than 700 million names between them, our U.S. Census Collections are the best place to start when searching for your family’s American story. Discover where your relatives worked, who they married, the names of their family members, and a whole lot more.

*Expires July 6, 2014 at 11:59pm ET.

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Here are just some of the family pics I discovered on Ancestry.com

[Mel]

I went there and they wanted payment info. Is there a specific link for this event?

[Dennis Heaton]

Mel...see what ya get with this:

Log Into Your Ancestry.com Account

[Dennis Heaton]

My apologies everyone...it "appears" that the "Free Access" is/was targeted at prior subscribers. My bad! Sorry, Mel!

[Mel]

Got it. Thank You.

[Jim Kyle]

Dennis, they have always requested credit card information to sign up for their free promotions; unless you cancel out immediately when the free period ends, they start billing it.

I subscribed for quite a few years but eventually got to the point that I couldn't find enough new at their site to make it worth the cost. I did manage to trace one line back to around 740 AD, but the link between England and this country wasn't definite enough to claim it -- and along the way I discovered that just about everyone with any roots in Europe is a descendant of either William the Conqueror or Charlemagne, because those two were quite active siring offspring all over the place...

EDIT: I agree with you that the census records are about the best place to look, but you have to be careful and try to confirm them because misspellings are rife and penmanship on the older records is pretty poor as well. Also, before 1850 only heads of households were listed by name...

[KenRagsdale]

The 1820 United States Census can be problematic, although I was able to work around it in my search. The British torched the capitol during the war of 1812 and many records were lost. With the help of LDS church genealogy records and Ancestry.com I was able to muddle through to the 15th century.

[Dennis Heaton]

EDIT: I agree with you that the census records are about the best place to look, but you have to be careful and try to confirm them because misspellings are rife and penmanship on the older records is pretty poor as well. Also, before 1850 only heads of households were listed by name...

Jim...I definitely found this to be true. For years I thought one of my Great-Grandmother's last name was "Stanlon." It turned out that it was "Hanlon," and I am sure you know what that led to.

I have been a subscriber to Ancestry.com for several months. I started out with 8 names in my Family Tree (which you can create for free) last November. I am now over 500 names in various branches, going back to 1609. I haven't yet opened the vault to my Irish and Scottish roots. I had to temporarily stop my subscription because of other matters that requires my attention. I am definitely going to go back in a few months. I have thoroughly enjoyed the research.

BTW...folks can check the Census Records on-line (seems to be a bit of a problem checking 1930 though), through the Metropolitan Library System, if they have a Library Card...and who doesn't have a Library Card these days? (chuckling)