Originally Posted by
Asturias56
well they're OUR records - they should be available without commercialising them
No arguments with that, they are.
You search through them with no index...
The records themselves are public property I believe. The index belongs to Ancestry as they created it.
Who did the initial digitising I've no idea, but if it was Ancestry why shouldn't they want, and get, a return on their labour?
Somebody's got to pay for the staff.