Wonderboy said:I don't want to pay for any site and isn't it entirely possible that they've made information up and it may not be factually or historically correct?
It is interesting though, me likey.
The best sites are those that have scanned the actual document and allow you to view it. Census documents are pretty good as far as accuracy goes but they're really only the beginning and they only go back to the 1850s or so. cyndislist.com is a great general resource, she lists over 250,000 genealogical links and there are a number that deal with the accuracy of various databases, websites, etc. One of the biggest problems is when someone quotes someone else who quoted someone else whose information was wrong.
I've got about a dozen ancestor obituaries and they've been very helpful but every single one has either spelling errors or other mistakes. Genealogy is like history, it's an art, not a science. Keep an open mind and remember that just as in journalism, every fact should be verified independently. Oral family histories are also very suspect when it comes to accuracy. One of my Dad's cousins committed suicide in 1950 and so far I have 4 versions of why he did it.