Check your local library to see if they have an account. My wife uses ancestry.com at the library for free all the time.
Ancestry is just too high, and so much of their information is given to them for FREE from users, then sell it back to them.
I am a little irritated that the gov. would consign the Census records to Ancestry. That is public information and should not be sold. jmo
So much information is on www.findagrave.com, a great genealogy source. Especially when tryint to verify a birth and death date, many times you will see the headstones. Best genealogy site for me.