William and Kate need not apply

Ancestry isn't being slow in getting into the hype surrounding the forthcoming royal wedding. Royal genealogy has been a staple on the Internet for years, and Kate Middleton's ancestry, including her criminal ancestry, has been the subject of professional genealogists scrutiny. With all that they have nothing to research, poor things, another disadvantage being royalty, and won't need to take advantage of Ancestry.co.uk's offer of free access (with registration) to the company England and Wales marriage indexes.

Most of the period from the start of civil registration is well covered by FreeBMD, which I, and those conducting nearly 200,000 searches yesterday, prefer to Ancestry's version. However, if you're searching from the 1940s onward Ancestry is a good option.