It was recently brought to our attention that images on sites like FamilySearch.org are not guaranteed to be there forever. Three years ago we captured an image of a marriage certificate from Cook County, Illinois. Today that image is no longer available on that site. Why? Because FamilySearch contracted with Cook County for those images to be available for about two years only. Now an index of what is available appears on their site and anyone needing a certificate has to go to http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com and pay $15.00!
How many times have we, as genealogists, get caught up in the search and think, I can get that later. We now know “later” may be too late.