Using online databases are a great way to try and find an individual by searching the index.  When that doesn’t work, I enjoy online databases even better when you can actually scroll through the  images.

Indexing a document is difficult and I am not criticizing all the volunteers who put countless hours into indexing projects; I just like having the option to look at the actual image to see if I can get more information from the document then what was captured by the indexer.

The Genealogist’s Question & Answer Book by Marcia Yannizze Melnyk looks at some of the pros and cons of using online database and indexes available online.