Ancestry.com is like the Walmart of genealogy sites. They have bought up a lot of the mom and pop sites to form a conglomerate which pretty much has the market. I love how easy it is to use. I love the interface. I love that you see pictures next to your ancestors' names, if they're available. I have a bit of a problem with the idea of encouraging everyone to submit their info, just so they can turn around and sell it to others. That has been the basis of their success. On the other hand, you are paying for their software and their organization of your info. It's up to you.
For the rest of us, the Mormons have familysearch.org. It's free and it's pretty wonderful. You can build your tree right there, and when you get a hint or need to do a search, all of their records are fully accessible and free.
I'm hoping that eventually most of the records available at Ancestry, including the user submitted family trees, will be available on familysearch.
WeRelate.org is another free service, although I don't find it as helpful as familysearch. Genealogy.com has some decent archived sites, including mine from back in the Day. The files there are a decent starting place if you are interested in the Ulery or Stange branches. You can find those here. Note that there are errors in those files. I have much more info now, as I will be posting in this blog.
If you're cheap like me, you can still build your tree at Ancestry for free, and you can click on their hints to get a peek at what they are. To see the actual records requires a paid subscription, but go ahead and use Ancestry to tell you what's out there, then search that particular record at familysearch.org.
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