Patrons at your FHC may ask about this. It has had a lot of discussion, but there still seems to be some confusion. Formerly, there was a need to wait for a personal invitation, but now that is unnecessary. Just click the links given at:
https://familysearch.org/blog/en/create-free-account-familysearch-partners/ Since I live in Canada, my free account is with Ancestry.ca but I have access to the info on Ancestry.com I am spending a lot of time there.
If you need additional help, call the toll-free support number for your part of the world to get help from a real, live person. This link will give you the contact info https://familysearch.org/ask/help#customerService
The FamilySearch blog posting starts off by saying:
"Create Your Own Free Accounts with Our FamilySearch Partners
We’re excited to announce that all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as LDS youth ages 13-17, can now create their own personal accounts with Ancestry.com, findmypast, and MyHeritage at no cost!"
Note that this offer is not extended to those who have a FamilySearch account for the general public, only those who have an LDS account. Why? Because these companies depend on subscriptions to pay their expenses. Giving free accounts to everyone who has a free FamilySearch account would quickly put these companies out of business. The deal, as I understand it is: the LDS Church is giving these commercial sites access to the world's largest repository of genealogical records (the Granite Mountain Record Vaults), and in return these companies provide LDS members with free access to their online records. These companies are also supposed to help index the records in the vaults. So it is a win-win situation. The indexes will be accessible on FamilySearch.org for free. We will all benefit from more records online than ever before.
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