I do agree with your thinking as expressed here but there are far too many in today's "rush-rush" and "make it easy for me" world who, if they cannot find there information quick and easy, just move on to other sites. With much of the haphazard spelling used in the past, I prefer taking my time and reading and sounding out some of the names when doing serious research. Back when many census takers and county clerks just wrote the name down as they heard it, it sure led to some very strange spellings. As recently as yesterday I was ask on two different telephone calls how to spell my surname, Shockey. Back a hundred years ago they likely did not bother to ask. Les Gayle Triller wrote: > I put my search engine at the bottom of the page just above my footer. > Since search engines don't always pull up everything you have on your site > or will pull up several pages that it found only because the name of the > submitter matches what you typed in. There is also the issue of spelling. > I think it is good for the researcher to see what your page has to offer. > Often pages have great information that might help our researchers that will > not come up in a search such as interesting newspaper articles about the > area or stories that might give them an idea of what life might have been > like for their ancestor. Or links to other sites that might be of help. > Many states are putting vital records on line that the researcher would not > know about if they stopped at the top of your page and ran a search. If you > place your search engine at the top of the page and the page itself is never > looked at a lot of very good and helpful things could be missed. Just my > thoughts on the matter. > > Gayle