I've used Ancestry for years - I think my sub's about £30 a quarter, which saves a hell of a lot of money on train fares to London and back. This is for the UK records, of course.

Years ago, I used to travel up to London for the day - over an hour each way, spend all day hauling down huge volume after huge volume from shelves, or fry my eyes over reel after reel of microfilm - often coming away with very little for my pains and probably missing stuff. It was like panning for gold for a month and getting a few grains.

Then I joined Ancestry and accomplished more in 5 years than I did in the previous 20! Of course, more and more stuff came on line in that time, but being able to sit at my laptop and sift through dozens of records in comfort is a joy. Online ordering of BM & D certificates is also a luxury, as is the UK 1911 census - though both of these incur extra expenditure. It's also good to see Irish and Scottish records getting on line as well.