The Plymouth Library Genealogy Blog pointed me to Everton Publishers Genealogy Blog examines “Which to Use? Ancestry.com or HeritageQuest for the Best Census Images” for researching genealogy census reports online.
…So to make a long story short – today we have two separate digital databases with two separate digitizations. As you know, sometimes you can read one – when you can’t read the other. Most active genealogists use both, if they are available. Sometimes we make a run to the Family History Library to read the microfilm itself.
HeritageQuest Online doesn’t have anywhere near the indexes available that Ancestry does. Many of us use the Ancestry indexes and the Ancestry digital images first. If the images aren’t legible, we move over to HeritageQuest Online…
Now don’t get the idea from my above illustration that it always works this way. Often it’s the other way around. The Ancestry image (especially of “light” handwriting) is sometimes better. And there are times, when neither image is any better than the other. However, there are enough times that they are, that I would be very unhappy if I didn’t have access to both.
I have to agree. I’ve found that HeritageQuest often has clearer images, though not always. But Ancestry.com has more census forms.
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