AMERICAN ANCESTORS DATABASES of THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

I do use other databases besides Ancestry TM and FamilySearch.  One of these is called American Ancestors.  Their website includes links to hire a pro.

Excerpt: We offer more than 470 record-based databases to search, containing data from all over the globe. Unique datasets include the Boston Catholic records, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Applications, and many more.

According to my library, they have access to over 3000 searchable collections.

What I check them for mostly is Irish research especially as those include Boston Roman Catholics.

Years ago there were various start ups and some of those remain on the Internet or grew via volunteers and it seems that Ancestry TM and FamilySearch are the ones have grown the most.  So sometimes the difference is indexing.

There have been times where I checked more than one of the genealogy databases to find people on the census and indexing made all the difference.

CHERBOURG PASSENGER LISTS and MUCH ELSE at GJENVICK- GJONVIK ARCHIVES

GG ARCHIVES - CHERBOURG PASSENDER LISTS   The last port the Titanic stopped at before it's fateful journey across the Atlantic was Cherbourg,

GG archives presents these French passenger lists as well as much much more.  

I don't usually like to link to sites with ads, and this one has them, but it's an impressive collection.

Ads will pop up.  You'll have to be careful that you don't enter an ancestor's name into the ad for a search for living humans or search for singles to date. I find the distractions difficult but...

If you find what you needed I suggest it's reasonable to support the site with a contribution.  It's been up a long time and the owner is an educated person who has an interesting collection to share.

You may also find Antwerp Belgium 1892-1939

Belfast Ireland 1923-1939

Boston 1887-1939

Boulogne sur Mer 1899-1933

Montreal, Naples.... and more...