Does anyone have any advice on use of the search functions at ancestry.com?   So far I haven't found a way to limit searches to a specific area or time frame.  I put all of the details into the boxes of "advanced search," and end up with tons of hits for  census records decades after the person's death and half a continent away from the state and county I've specified.  It's even worse when I try to access the newspapers etc. In general, the search engine doesn't seem to understand that wild spelling (or transcribing) of the ancestor's name is far more likely than that the ancestor will have migrated.  I hope I'm just missing something....

So far the best thing about Ancestry is the ability to save scans of census pages I'd laboriously hand copied from microfilm years ago.  It's nice to be able to adjust size, contrast, etc.

(I agree that it would be wonderful to go to courthouses, etc., but that is rarely possible.)

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html