Ron, If you belong to your local library, you may be able to access HeritageQuestOnline for free. I just have to enter my library card # and pin from my home computer to have access. I also live in a smal town so odds are that you can get access as well. I think their indexes, search engine and census images are a better quality than Ancestry. The down side is they don't have all census images online. If you are researcing as far back as 1830, HeritageQuest will also have books that you can access by entering the persons name and or location.

I think Ancestry's indexes are the worst. On the LVA mailing list someone mentioned they have been trying for years to get Ancestry to change the incorrect Richmond County, VA to show it as the city it is in Henrico County. They have not been successful. On one census, they have also interpreted Sussex County, VA as Surry Co. So when searching thru the index, if you put a location in for a particular person, the name will not come up. I think this was the 1870, but am doing this from memory.

Hopefully the uploading of the records by FamilySearch will prompt Ancestry to clean up its act.

Linda