I sent this to the Roots-L list after the recent ongoing expression of frustrations about Ancestry's New Search versus Old Search. Thought this may be of interest to the FTM world. I agree, let's cool the jets on the subject ... it's over and done with ... move forward!!! Having said that, I too got along very well with the old search but have somewhat gotten used to the new methodology ... but not without a tedious learning curve. I gave feedback to Ancestry for three reasons and with two caveats attached. 1) I think they must do a much better job in teaching and documentation efforts, as there are very different levels of experience on the scene from those who barely have ever used a computer to experts both in the use of computers and Ancestry's products. Make features too complex and you run the risk of losing the beginners and the less skilled and inexperienced. Make it too simple and you may have to trade-off versatility. Searching is the backbone of Ancestry's worth to the end-user and for whatever reasons there is a segment of their market that is struggling with this change. Ancestry owes it to themselves, for the continuation of an excellent genealogy site, who single handily has advanced the access to genealogy data more than any one I can think of off hand. Granted support efforts are taxed during most major changes, especially when the changes are complex and non-trivial bugs are embedded. But I feel safe in venturing that the greater portion of Ancestry's subscribers are not in the upper quartile of computer experience and therefore require coaching. And by the way coaching is not ignoring the need, preaching or beating on someone. I once had a football coach who told me as the quarterback I needed to learn when to pat someone on the butt and when to kick someone in the butt (he used a different word). 2) As the founder and present member of a genealogy club in my community, I see the membership frustration with this change at every meeting. I find myself engulfed more and more lately as teacher and councilor, especially with the new genealogists, a preponderance of whom are older and less exposed to the computerization aspects of genealogy. I am 78 but fortunately have a long and broad exposure to computers, am conditioned to accept change and possess an inherent logical approach to problem solving. Sometimes I come home frustrated from our meetings and have resorted to writing detailed papers that expand on Ancestry's efforts to educate. Many of the subjects are the same questions asked on this list or FTM-Tech, so I have plagiarized the good advice. 3) As a former engineer/programmer, everywhere I worked, be it for machine control or data analysis/management, there was a design rule that was mandatory ... it must be user friendly and intuitive ... no ifs or buts!!! I don't think this new search engine has achieved that goal yet, but I believe it will over time. The caveats to my feedback to Ancestry were: a) They are smart and good business people or otherwise they would not be in the successful position they are in today. Therefore, as a subscriber to their offerings and owner of their Family Tree Maker, I have faith that they will improve this search engine ... it's the heart of their product besides their breadth of databases. b) From a technological viewpoint, I fully understand the strategical need to make this change and fully understand that there are technical restrictions in major changes like this, that are beyond the knowledge of the end-users. By the way, I feel the same way about the TreeSync feature in Family Tree Maker, I still am not thrilled with the idiosyncrasies and limitations of that feature. But it's a start and a badly needed one in the big picture of connectivity, portability, redundancy and data recovery in this ever so quickly technology dependent process we call Genealogy. And I would like to thank all the people who contribute to this extremely helpful List and even more so to the contributors to the FTM-Tech list. Especially I would like to draw attention to two people of the FTM-Tech list, Russ Worthington and BJ with his masterful succinct, step by step answers to those in need of help. Ken Schroeder