I respectively disagree. Even though I agree that the newspaper search function is sometimes frustrating due to excessive false positives, it has been well worth the subscription fee for me. When searching for the surname of my g grandfather, who lived in Canton, Ohio, I found an extremely important one sentence article in the "Daily Northwestern" newspaper, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as published on Friday, November 6, 1885. It described a fire in Canton, Ohio that had destroyed a cutlery factory. From family records, I knew that my g grandfather was in the cutlery business in Canton at that time but I had no knowledge of a fire. Based on the article found in the Ancestery.com newspaper search, I read the Canton library's microfilm newspaper for that date and I found extensive coverage of the fire, including my g grandfather's involvement with the company and a reporter's interview with my g grandfather. Without the Ancestry.com 'hit', I would probably not yet know anything about the fire. Incidentally, the 'problems' with Ancestry.com's newspaper search feature can also be used to one's advantage. Since the search feature just tries to find the word or words entered, and doesn't really care if those words are a person's name or something else, I have used it for such purposes as finding newspaper advertisements placed by businesses run by my ancestors (by entering the business name), to find references to hotels where my relatives stayed (by entering the hotel name) and to find military information about my ancestors units (by entering the unit names). All-in-all, I have been well rewarded for the money that I've spent on Ancestry.com's newspaper collection. "Genjunkie" <[email protected]> wrote... > Not surprising. The newspapers are probably the most worthless of the > "add-on" subscriptions due to the stupid search function. I don't pay > for it.

"Mardon" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > I respectively disagree. > [...] > > When searching for the surname of my g grandfather, who lived in Canton, > Ohio, I found an extremely important one sentence article in the "Daily > Northwestern" newspaper, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as published on Friday, > November 6, 1885. It described a fire in Canton, Ohio that had destroyed a > cutlery factory. From family records, I knew that my g grandfather was in > the cutlery business in Canton at that time but I had no knowledge of a > fire. Based on the article found in the Ancestery.com newspaper search, I > read the Canton library's microfilm newspaper for that date and I found > extensive coverage of the fire, including my g grandfather's involvement > with the company and a reporter's interview with my g grandfather. Without > the Ancestry.com 'hit', I would probably not yet know anything about the > fire. > Incidentally, the 'problems' with Ancestry.com's newspaper search feature > can also be used to one's advantage. Since the search feature just tries to > find the word or words entered, and doesn't really care if those words are a > person's name or something else, I have used it for such purposes as finding > newspaper advertisements placed by businesses run by my ancestors (by > entering the business name), to find references to hotels where my relatives > stayed (by entering the hotel name) and to find military information about > my ancestors units (by entering the unit names). All-in-all, I have been > well rewarded for the money that I've spent on Ancestry.com's newspaper > collection. > Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. I may not have given it enough of a chance. Perhaps I'll try again.

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004, Mardon wrote: > ... > Incidentally, the 'problems' with Ancestry.com's newspaper search feature > can also be used to one's advantage. Since the search feature just tries to > find the word or words entered, and doesn't really care if those words are a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > person's name or something else, I have used it for such purposes as finding ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > newspaper advertisements placed by businesses run by my ancestors (by > entering the business name), to find references to hotels where my relatives > stayed (by entering the hotel name) and to find military information about > my ancestors units (by entering the unit names). All-in-all, I have been > well rewarded for the money that I've spent on Ancestry.com's newspaper > collection. > > "Genjunkie" <[email protected]> wrote... > > Not surprising. The newspapers are probably the most worthless of the > > "add-on" subscriptions due to the stupid search function. I don't pay > > for it. Tell me about it. Try my surname, and even on "google", 99% of the hits will not lead to a person even though there are only about 500 people in 5 families in total living today with the same spelling. What's even more amazing is that there's 5% of the hits that have nothing to do with the products that 94% of the hits deal with, nor pertain to any person who has the surname.