Even if you walk into the Births, Deaths and Marriages Bureau (hatch, match and despatch) or shipping records place, you often end up having to pay a fee to get copies. In these electronic times it's becoming faster, easier and cheaper.We've found our national War Memorial to be an invaluable FREE resource for us, with help available on request. Any website or organisation is still going to pass on to you, any costs they would incur on your behalf. They may pass these costs on with an added fee - I don't know. Once you get the hang of hat you need to do, you may find yourself more comfortable flying solo.
With war service - go straight to your government's war records. husband has actually arranged to travel to Canberra for ours, he spent an entire day in their records room when we last stayed in Canberra with easy child & SIL1. He said the trip was very worthwhile for him. We have also found it to be a valuable family pilgrimage to go there, look around and learn. The displays are "something for everyone" regardless of age. But when checking out war records, be prepared for a lot of data to be wrong. People routinely lied about their age or birthdate in order to enlist, often while under-age. Paperwork often got misplaced or confused. But over time you can sort out a lot of this and you can find out other stuff your family member never told you. We found info about husband's father that surprised us - a possible indication of a suicide attempt soon after the war that seemed so unlike him - then when we learned more, years later, about his experiences, we understood how it could have been possible, and also understood why later in life he was so intolerant of mental illness. It was handled differently back then and he had probably been in a very dark place, not treated as we would these days, and never wanted to be back there again.
ALso check out - family attics and shoeboxes with old birth certificates and death certificates. Old photos. Scan it all, store it on CD. Check the back of the photos for information, always write it down. My mother used to write on the back of photos, who was in them. Now she is gone, this is vital info. We can cross-reference to other unlabelled photos. Some of her old photos were little more than thumbnails. We have one photo, about 2" x 3", of her and my father "courting", sitting on the running board of what now is a vintage car. The inside of the car is in shadow, but when we scanned it and looked more closely, there in the car, uncharacteristically smiling (because she grew up in an era where you never smiled for photos) was my grandmother who I never met. My mother had always said she had a beautiful smile and it is a shame we have no photos showing her smile. But in this scan - there she is. Chaperone. Smiling, thinking herself unseen by the photographer. We found it 60 years after it was taken.
Write this sort of stuff down. Organise family reunions, get people to bring their information and photos, bring your own cameras, laptops (with genealogy software), thumb drives, and their kids. Make sure people wear name tags and try to organise name tags with their branch of the family colour-coded or marked.
These events can be fun. A special birthday or other event for an older family member can be the excuse. We had one last year, I saw cousins I haven't seen since I was tiny. One famous cousin has had a book published about his life. He died a few years ago, but his sisters brought a copy of his book. Another cousin is a prolific author of books on botany, he brought his most recent book to show us. A very modest man. he and my oldest brother talked for a long time and as I watched them I realised how much alike they are. I'd never seen them together, ever, even though my brother has seen more of this cousin over the years than I have. My cousin's father was my favourite uncle, I had a lovely time talking about his father with him.
Go for it! The more you play with this, the more you find to do and the more you realise how important family history is, to the next generations.
Marg