Just found out that an ancestor testified in the Salem Witchcraft Trials

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13. Keep an eye on Fold3.com - used to be Footnote.com

They have National Archives records and periodically allow free look-ups of different periods of military records. Usually WWII around Dec. 7, others around Veteran's Day.

Virginia State Archives had records online for free, which are really good for locating colonial era land grants - start here http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/ Then look at Collections by Topic. You can also search wills and estate administrative records: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/opac/willsabout.htm Go to the Index to Wills and Administrations from that page.

Lots of North Carolina counties had land records online going all the way back to colonial times. And the state has a lot indexed but few actual scans online: http://mars.archives.ncdcr.gov/BasicSearch.aspx

Find A Grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi often has photos of graves and markers and if you are lucky someone will have added genealogical info to the page for your ancestor. If there are no pictures, you can put in a request for a picture and someone may be generous and take one and post it to the site.

Also check http://usgenweb.org/ and http://usgwarchives.net/ for the areas where your ancestors lived - depending on the specific county and families, there could be a wealth of information. Since the information is all put online by volunteers, it is hit or miss if someone has uploaded what you need, but I have found some good data at those sites.

Other than Fold3, those are all free resources and if you watch for the free weeks at Fold3 you can get a lot of information without spending a dime.