I once was a subscriber to Fold3 (when it was named Footnote.org) and it was valuable — but now they got rid of the best parts (city directories and newspapers). They still have naturalization stuff that is not in Ancestry.com so it may be worth it to you (or if you have ancestors who were here prior to 1900 and were in the military: Spanish American, Civil War, War of 1812, Revolutionary War, etc.).

I did subscribe to one of the newspaper services (GenealogyBank I think). It was useful when I was helping people with long ancestries inside the USA and could use their historic newspapers.

I have never subscribed to GENEALOGY.COM but I think their offering may be helpful too.

I did subscribe to World Vital Records once and I regretted the waste of my money. Much of their info was public domain stuff that you could find through Google. That left such a bad taste I have not been back since. They would need to give me a FREE subscription equal to the one I had before so I could check them out again before I would change my opinion and if they still are doing what they did before I would still tell you not to use them.

Other subscriptions may be of use, but they are so specific to a single type of research, that I have not had the need to use them and cannot render an opinion one way or the other. There are some subscription databases that only libraries can get that I wish were offered “cheaply” to individuals.

I STRONGLY urge people to visit their local Family History Center (Stanczyk is NOT LDS) and rent their microfilm (which can be done online now). That can be very good value and fairly convenient too for most areas.

–Stanczyk

I don’t want to get you in trouble here, but since you readily give your opinion on many subjects and I Thank You for that—-
What are the Top 3 Websites, after Ancestry.com that you would recommend are worth their Subscription/Membership Fees?

It might also be worth a brief noting the wide variety of websites that continually pop up for “Vital Stat” records. I’m hesitant to sign up for several of them, just so I can give them a try. I don’t want my credit card info out on the web any more than is absolutely necessary!
Any advice on this topic?

As Always-Thanks for the info,
MaryAnne