Has anyone used http://www.worldvitalrecords.com? I have not, but am interested in how helpful it was to you in your research. It's become quite popular very quickly (i.e. yesterday it had more than 10,000 visitors). It was started by Paul Allen, who was one of the original founders of Myfamily and Ancestry before he left the company back in 2000.

Anyway, would be interested in any feedback because I've heard mixed reviews. Thanks!

I have looked at it, I seriously doubt I would pay for it since I have ancestry. Im getting real tired of these "records for a fee" sites.

I'm with you Shanifaye, I don't believe I'd pay to use this site having ancestry. At this time my family research is going to have to be on free sites.

Good luck if you decide to use this site. Let us know how it goes.

Donna

Now, this may change tomorrow, but I might humbly suggest that you go back and look at this again.

There are a LOT of FREE newspapers, little newspapers, scanned, images! I got hits on 149 different newspapers on the search of surname Lashbrook.

Ellis Island supposedly free too??? (I have not clicked on that link)

Might be worth checking out.

Funny, , I just found this site today, while surfing around looking for some frustrating ancestors hiding, you know where, behind the wall First time I had seen it. I am gonna book mark it and keep an eye on it and see if those newspapers remain free.

thats odd...every newspaper search I did wanted me to be a member to see the full article. They give me a teaser for free but thats it

They must have changed that, because when I first found them it wasnt listed as "free access"

Shanifaye,

This is what I did, up in top right corner was a search box, I typed in surname, and clicked away.

Twice today, I have gone there and the newspapers were free.

Go figure. How bizare, eh??

(I just opened ANOTHER page for this site, and fussed around in a different way, and I still get FREE newspapers.)

I would just like to ammend what I said....I was wrong, I got WVR confused with genealogy bank. Its genealogy bank that will not let you access newspaper records without paying

Alas, it is a subscription based site... and I am not a subscriber, so I can not offer any feedback from that perspective, but as a browser, I have found that it does indeed provide "free" teasers.... just a tad bit of info.... (which in some cases can be helpful at least as lead potentials) and the "free access" items are only available for a limited time... so if you see something interesting, you should get it while you can!

Most of the things that peaked my interest were for "member access only"...

They do provide some access to some genealogical data, via "free" images of various reprints of old printings, which are great, but take FOREVER to download and it is not clear if you are provided the entire volume or not... BUT AGAIN... the availability is limited to a few days !

I have not yet tried looking at Newspapers but will if they are free and are in areas and times that are within my interest...

Good Luck!

I can confirm that worldvitalrecords offers a lot of free teasers that are helpful, but that the only free complete information is that which you can elsewhere on the web for free, as well.

That said, I do prefer accessing Ellis Island through the wvr search engine as it's displays are more user friendly.

I have found their site a little more user-friendly than ancestry.com, which absolutely refuses to make themselves user-friendly for people unable to use approved browsers. WVR at least lets me download my own images, and ancestry.com won't, but no, their databases are really scrawny compared to those at ancestry. Their home-town newspapers have very few dates in very few home towns, for example.

What would you most want to know about them? I don't think they're worth $5-6 a month, but I got a deal at about $2 a month which means I've got access to stuff I couldn't do at ancestry, but if you have full access to ancestry, they are probably not worth it. Their international records are very, very sparse as far as I can tell.