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Subscriptions : Heritage Quest
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Recommend (1 recommendation so far) Message 1 of 9 in Discussion 
From: gramaru  (Original Message)Sent: 1/31/2003 9:03 PM

Heritage Quest is a business that sells lots of genealogy CDs, magazines, books, microfilms and other software. You can join their "Research Club" (which does not include online access, but does give discounts on merchandise) for $29.95 per year. They claim to have all sorts of source documents, including immigrant ship lists, Native American data, state data, etc., including local histories. You have to join through Genealogy.Com to access their online databases of all the Federal Censuses (including the existing fragments of the 1890 "lost" census). I do not know the cost of all that. HOWEVER, if your local library has a website, check to see if they have any "Online Research Sites", either accessible at the library or from your home computer. My library card gives me a password to access Heritage Quest from home--for free! (I can also access Ancestry.com from the library computer, but only Heritage Quest can be accessed from home.) This means I go first to the library website, then to Online Resources, a library card number and password is required (which gives me a password to enter the Heritage Quest online database) and eureka! I have found the census images to be quite good, for the most part, but since they are images of the originals, you have to deal with someone else's handwriting and spelling. They have some of the census indexed: 1790, 1800, 1810, 1870, 1890 (fragments), and 1910, but all of the censuses are browsable. They also have some books online, both family histories and local histories, searchable by "People", "Places", or "Publications." I have not ventured into this part of the site very deeply, as I tend to concentrate on one source until I think I have all the data available, before moving to another.

For example, using "Illinois" in the search box brings up 21 books (which can be read online), ranked by their relevancy rating system:

History of Wasco County, Oregon

An illustrated history of the counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota

History of Iroquois County Watseka, Ill.

Iroquois County Board of Supervisors, 1968

Genealogy, Napoleon Senesac family

An illustrated history of Spokane County, state of Washington

An illustrated history of Umatilla County Spokane, Wash.

Illinois activities in the World War : covering the period from 1914 to 1920

History of Cherokee County, Kansas and representative citizens

History of northern Wisconsin

History of La Salle County, Illinois

History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois : "centennial record"

The History of Contra Costa County, California

Portrait and biographical album of Rock Island County, Illinois

In the foot-prints of the pioneers of Stephenson County, Illinois : a genealogical record

history of the city of Vincennes, Indiana : from 1702 to l901

Memorial and biographical history of Dallas County, Texas

Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana : historical and biographical.

Past and present of Washtenaw County, Michigan
A history of the Robinson and Hawley families : (including findings on the Morris, Putnam, Cary and Plummer families)
Family record of James Carse, Sr., 1793-1846, and his descendants
Genealogy of the Child, Childs, and Childe families : of the past and present in the United States and the Canadas, from 1630 to 1881

Some of these books may only mention Illinois and some may have been published in Chicago, so you have to go through the lists to determine if any of them might pertain to your research.

Would I pay for access to this site? I doubt it, even though the census images are easy to navigate and the quality is, all things considered, good. Do I use and enjoy it? Yes, very much so. Would I recommend it? If you have a lot of census searching to do, it might be worth your while, depending on the price. I like the convenience of doing my research at home. Heritage Quest does not have all the other databases on line that Ancestry has, so if census research is only a small portion of what you are looking for, it probably is not for you. I must mention, also, that there has been very little "downtime" since I have been using this site. They do have some sort of "maintenance", but it is performed after midnight, and only once (about 3 AM) was I unable to access information. This could be attributed to the library website as they are doing some updating and making changes to the catalog.



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Reply
Recommend  Message 2 of 9 in Discussion 
From: JIPSent: 1/31/2003 10:04 PM
Gramaru - Good information to know - doubt whether it would help me at
this point in time - will file data - Thanks - JIP


Reply
Recommend  Message 3 of 9 in Discussion 
From: gramaruSent: 1/31/2003 11:46 PM
You know, search engines are funny critters.  Because I was intrigued by one of the books which came up on my earlier "example" search of Heritage Quest about LaSalle County, Illinois, I repeated the procedure, expecting to see the same 21 items.  Was I surprised!  This time, using "Illinois" as the place for a search, it came back with 7073 items!  This could take awhile!  Color me very confused!  Ruth

Reply
Recommend  Message 4 of 9 in Discussion 
From: MasuguSent: 1/31/2003 11:50 PM
Thanks Leslie--that was perfect! If I read you correctly, depending on ones local library's arrangements, one may be able to reach Genealogy.com's census images w/o having to pony up for the Census package. That sounds lke a great deal for those who are near participating libraries. Cheers, Masugu

Reply
Recommend  Message 5 of 9 in Discussion 
From: dinaSent: 2/2/2003 9:11 PM
The local library tip is something very good to remember. It's quite amazing all the databases I found I had access to via my library card. Alas, genealogy databases are not included with mine, but lots of good supplementary information is.
 
Dina

Reply
Recommend  Message 6 of 9 in Discussion 
From: MSN NicknameDawsonDescendedSent: 6/24/2003 11:37 PM
The way to access HeritageQuest from home...
 
Carolyn
 

Reply
Recommend  Message 7 of 9 in Discussion 
From: M 0 MSent: 7/5/2003 5:16 PM
The following was posted on the Saline Co. Rootsweb line (home of the
Harrisburg Library). I have the feeling that either Heritage Quest or the Harrisburg
Library will put a stop to our back door (we still have the other free way in,
longer but it works).
Susan


To: [email protected]

Hello,

I just received an e-mail from the librarian at the Harrisburg Public Library
highlighting a new service they've secured. Thanks for a grant they've just
added a one-year subscription go HeritageQuest, one of the paid genealogy sites
on the web -- but if you go through the link on their genealogy page, you can
use it for free. Yes, you can do this from your home computer even if you've
never checked out the genealogy section in person at the library.

The link is http://www.sirin.lib.il.us/docs/mcl/docs/lib/. That's the main
page. Then click on GENEALOGY. When that page comes up, then click on
HeritageQuest.

Note: If you click on the HeritageQuest link from the front page you will get
a sign-in page. Unless you are a paid subscriber you won't want this. Go back
to the library's page and go to the genealogy page. There you will find the
correct link.

Let's all say a big thank you to the library.




Reply
Recommend  Message 8 of 9 in Discussion 
From: MSN NicknameUSAOFlynnSent: 7/7/2003 12:53 PM
Hello,
I had no problem accessing heritage quest by going to www.heritagequestonline.com and using the password and user name given on the front of the page.

Reply
Recommend  Message 9 of 9 in Discussion 
From: Patty HennSent: 8/10/2003 7:04 PM
Hi,
I just found out that the Peoria,( Taswell Co., IL ) Library has Heritage Quest. When I lived in Banner, I had a library card, but it has since expired. The Peoria Library said that to renew my card, because I know live out of the state it would cost me 200 dollars.

I just wanted to post this message to let anyone that lives near Peoria, can go get a library card and use heritage quest.
Patty

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