RootsChat.Com

I hope this is allowed. I'm just at a frustration point. I'm a casual family-mapper. By that I mean I've been searching for my father and mother's family trees off and on for about 8 or more years.  I get stumped, so I quit for awhile and then come back months later and find something new and exciting. I've met cousins and 2nd cousins I never knew existed, thanks to it all.  But my frustration has reached the boiling point - everything I once was able to find for myself now seems to be hidden on a pay site.  I used to go straight to the US Social Security death site and get all sorts of info - names and dates of great uncles, etc...now I can't. Findagrave - I've just spent the better part of an hour trying to find a grave and all I get are links to a pay site. Want to search for a marriage license...nope...I can't seem to find much that isnt....linked to a pay site. Seriously, most of this stuff is public information, some of it I searched and found (and foolishly made myself bookmarks that no longer work, rather than printing out reams of paper) and  now want to return to, only to find, I can't. 
So now I've got a great-aunt who I can find up to the 1920 census and bam! she's vanished. No grave, no marriage license, no obit, - I'm hoping that she's with my 3 great uncles who seem to have vanished, too.
The one thing I've liked about doing this myself, as well as doing it myself, is that I am certain all of my research was valid. I'm not bogged down by other searchers who think they may be related because they have a grandfather named Bob who was married to a Sally in some other country than my Bob, who was married to an Ann, not a Sally and the time difference is 35 years. *sigh*     
Okay, so this is a bit of a rant. But I do want some guidance.  Can someone to tell me how to get to the information I used to be able to get and not have to rely on a pay site?

I have been stuck for awhile on my great grandfather, James Beatty. I'm trying to find his marriage certificate, to ascertain information about his parents and his wife's parents. He married Jane (Jennie) Thomas in 1857 in Ontario. From what I can glean, there are 2 James Beatty families in Cobourg, Ontario at the time. My ggrandfather is from the Irish Church of England family, not related to the mayor Beatty (Scottish Methodist). My ggfather's family was a family of farmers and harness racers. The farm mentioned on this webpage has been verified as the farm my grandfather (Charles) grew up on. http://cobourghistory.ca/industry.htm

I know that my ggrandfather and his family moved to Saskatchewan in the early 1900's, and I've got good info for everything after that. It is prior to the birth of James and Jane's first son, James (junior?)  that I cannot find anything. My grandfather's marriage in Weston, Ontario in 1913 was witnessed by a James Thomas, so I would assume that Jane Thomas had at least one brother in Canada who had children. I suspect James Thomas is her nephew. There is some question whether Jane was born in Canada or Ireland.

My ggrandfather's obituary lists the marriage date as 1857 and that he was born in Canada (Ontario).  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I'm trying to do some research on a relative in Canada. I've seen a picture of her gravestone, so I've got her birthdate/death and know the pertinent information about all of her children/husband. So I know I've got a pretty good start and I've been having fun getting the information I have.

Here's my question: My target relative has a very common maiden name. Jane Thomas. Which means when I do a search, even when I narrow things down I get thousands of hits. Every Jane and every Thomas - whether Thomas is the first, last or middle name, I have the pleasure of having it in my search. Back in the 1800's, Thomas and Jane very popular names! Hence I'm spending hours, with a search of the year she's born and her name sifting through a ton of search results. 

What I am hoping someone can shed some light on - any tips on how to get through all of that, or am I stuck with an unending amount of search results to wade through? I know there must be a lot of people with the same problem. I've had no luck finding her parents, her birthplace (there's conflicting information that she was born either in Canada or Ireland) and a place of marriage. It appears she had a nephew by a brother (I'm surmising this from a marriage certificate of one of her sons with a witness with her maiden surname)....but of course I'm running into the same problem with the Thomas name again.

I'm not asking anyone to search for me, as I'm finding the journey as much fun as the destination, so to speak. Any sage advice? I've been stuck for a month or so.

I've been researching my father's family recently and quickly found my greatgrandfather in Canada in the 1870's. While doing the research, I located a second cousin who has also done some research along the same family line. We both get stuck at our greatgrandfather. We've found no records of him prior to the birth of his first son.  I was reminded today that there is a family story that my father's ancestors changed their name when they left ireland, to cut all family ties in Ireland because of the revolution going on there. Can anyone tell me, what clues can I look for to try to trace the family back to Ireland? Or are we out of luck?