Using the local library's free ancestry library edition is an excellent suggestion but as a word of caution, at my library you have to phone up and book one of their PCs if you don't have your own laptop that's got wireless internet connection. That seems the rule for the whole of my county, you might be lucky if you turn up on spec but in my local libraries all the PCs are in use every time I go in them plus there's very little space around each one for note materials and reference paperwork, the laptop route seems the better one as reading tables are used where there is space to 'spread about a bit'. Just my experiences locally.
When recently doing research for a project about the pubs in my home town I found that Ancestry seemed to find what I wanted when other sites didn't. Searching for Shields living exclusively at Patney came up with the Charles guy and his family whereas two other sites I checked to see if Ancestry had missed someone didn't find him or any members of his family, even when I entered the exact entry details from Ancestry's results which I find strange. Having said that if Ancestry doesn't find someone I've found it useful to check on the other sites and in the case of my pubs project in 1871 Ancestry had omitted about over ten pages and some 2-300 residents from one district whereas one of the other sites had these pages - I'd been blaming the enumerator for his failing, I'd thought that maybe visiting the some 13 pubs/hotels in 'his' district had been too much for him.
