Family History Centers are a great place to further your research for free. Of course you can always rent any of the millions of films available from the Family History Library (Salt Lake), but the Centers also offer free access to several "pay" websites, for use while in the Family History Center.
Those websites include:
Footnote.com - millions of original images from the US National Archives - full Rev War pension files, and lots of other military records, city directories, newspapers and more.
Genline.com - "the" Swedish research site online
Godfrey Memorial Library - a private genealogy library in CT, with lots of unique databases, access to lots of newspaper databases (including Access NewspaperArchives), and a whole host of other website links. Really an underutilized treasure.
Heritage Quest Online - Census records, genealogy books, Rev War pension files (the 'short' versions), Freedman's Bank Records, and US Serial Set - oh and PERSI (PERiodical Source Index)
World Vital Records - vital records, newspapers, books, publications - quite a bit of everything.
Its a great idea to "test drive" some of the pay sites before you subscribe, and this is one of the best ways to do it, since they are full-featured and completely FREE at the Family History Centers.