I am still trying GenealogyBank. See my earlier post for more (or maybe less) on my initial impressions.

I’m about half-way through the trial and I’m very impressed with the old newspapers aspect of the website. So far I haven’t had much luck searching the historical documents and books in their collection but given time I may get better at that. The GenealogyBank search box to the right is free to use and gives you an idea of the site but you do need to pay to actually view the documents.

I find the newspaper search much better than the one at Ancestry. I think the search function works better and there is quite a collection of newspapers to search. I’ve not had much luck with my New York City ancestors. Part of the problem is common names such as Greer and Tracey.

Reidy is not so common but in most of the records my great grandfather’s name was spelled Ready. So a search for William Ready pulls up articles with headlines such as “William ready to do this or that”.

But I have found quite a bit on other lines, especially those in Maryland and Delaware. And despite all the difficulties I have found some things in New York City. Despite my ancestors being mostly obscure, they got into the papers at times.

Some of the findings are the types of things I expected. Some are total surprises. So far I’m impressed with GenealogyBank.