The word was passed down "on high" yesterday that the RootsWeb Archive Search pages are ready. I have had only a little time to inspect our BLANCHARD-L site but will pass along some comments. There are lots of things to be learned but this is a start! The "RootsWeb Mailing Lists -- Interactive Search" Page can be found at: http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl Enter the name of the List that you wish to search and Submit. If you enter "BLANCHARD-L" (no quotes), you will reach the "Search the Archive of Messages for BLANCHARD Mailing List" Page. There are directories for 1996 and 1997. Select one and enter your search words. [You can also link to the "theaded message" search page that Marc Nozell has set up for BLANCHARD-L, by selecting the link: http://lists.rootsweb.com/~archiver/lists/BLANCHARD-L/ , just below the "Query area". ] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Here is what I have learned from exchanges with Karen Isaacson and a few sample search trials. 1. If you enter "Moulton Blanchard" for 1997 messages, you will get 8 messages that have those words somewhere within the message and will have to sort through them if you are looking for a particular message. Enclosing the words in quotes seaches for both words in that order. 2. Retrieving individual messages or digests from the "Demonstration Search" page http://searches.rootsweb.com/example.html that I reported to you on 19 Nov., could not be duplicated with the new Search page!! When I asked Karen if we were going to be able to retrieve single messages or digests using our Index-Lines numbering system - [ examples: using date 1997 12 04 or the message number, latest /337 or digest number, volume 97/12 ], Here is what she said: "I don't think the search engine will do what you want. You could reindex using the Message-ID's -- I believe that they're all preserved..." Here is an example of a "Message ID" for a message sent by Carole Schauber on 30 Nov 1997 that is identified as latest /323 The ID on the <message sent to the List> is: "nKZHOC.A.5mD.64jg0"@fp-1.rootsweb.com but using this ID <will not retrieve Carole's message!!> The ID on Carole's <message in the RootsWeb archives> is: 34823E63.B5F953F4@mnsi.net and using this ID <will retrieve Carole's message>. Adding all <these> IDs to our Index-Lines would be a major major job and this only covers the messages at RootsWeb. This would require accessing each message in the RootsWeb archives and copying its ID to all the Index-Lines for that message!! The archived messages from Maiser <do not have ID numbers> on the original messages sent to the List or on the archived messages at RootsWeb !! 3. The mail message numbers, latest/xxx do not appear in the RootsWeb archived messages so they are useless to perform a search. 4. I learned today that it is possible to search on date; for example, you could retrieve Carole's message by entering "30 Nov 1997" as the search string (must use the quotes/) but all other messages posted on that date are also retrieved. 5. Searching a date will also work on the Maiser messages and retrieves all messages posted on that date. Be sure to include the quotes. 6. For single digit days like 5 Nov, messages for 15 Nov and 25 Nov will also be returned. _ _ _ _ _ That's enough for now. I suggest you play with the Archives Search and let me know your reactions. In the meantime, I will think more about Index-Lines and how we might be able to use them. When things become clearer, we should be able to summarize the Search procedures in a few paragraphs?? Fletch