HQ is available for free through many public libraries across the country, most of them provide free home access for anyone with a library card. The login is usually the library card number, and it provides free access to the 1790-1940 Census, Revolutionary War Pension files, an extensive collection of Family History books, PERSI, which can be searched for historical books & articles, Freedmen's Bank records, & the U.S. Serial Set, which are various collections from Lexis Nexis for Memorials, Petitions, & Private Relief Actions in Congress over the years. I haven't used it much since FamilySearch started adding many of these same records to their website, but if you have access to it, it is a great resource. This calls to mind that one should also check their local library websites to see if they offer genealogy or other records online for patrons. My library in IL, for instance, has not only HQ, but also several newspaper databases such as News Bank (includes an obituary database), Accessible Archives, ECO, Master File Premier, which are the ones I'm most familiar with, but there are dozens of others I haven't even looked through. All of these requires one to just sign in with a library card number from the library's website, onto the the database one wants to use.
I rarely get to the actual library building, but I've always been very glad that one of the first things I did when I moved here was to go to the library and get a library card. Nowadays, almost everything one used to have to visit a library for, can be done with the click of mouse.

Deloris