Rootsweb Mailing List Archives Search

Posting queries on a Rootsweb mailing list is one of the easier things you can do to try and find your way to the other side of a genealogical brick wall. I've done so many times, and every so often receive an email about a link, or possible link. Posting is like leaving a baited fishing hook hanging in the water. You never know when someone is going to search the archives find one of your old queries.

That search process just got a bit easier. Rootsweb have an improved search engine (still in the beta) for all the Rootsweb Mailing List archives. If you're familiar with the old search engine you'll know that you first had to select a mailing list, and then search its archives year by year. Now you can search all the lists at once and, seemingly, for all years. That's a big time saver, and also an encouragement to formulating your search terms more carefully so as not to become swamped by hits. There's an advanced search tab allowing you to put several convenient restrictions on the search including specifying a particular mailing list and the poster. I can think of a few more I'd like to see, especially limiting the period searched to the past few weeks or months.

Find the new search engine at: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search