MESSEAR scours the Internet looking for your search names in the genealogy related newsgroups and mailing lists. Subscription to this service is free. When you subcribe, you will receive an email after each search pass. A message with your results will contain all the messages which have at least one of your search words. Each search word found will be listed between the message header and body. Every search word will be highlighted in the message, so you can easily find it.

     The search names are only found if the name is in a word by itself. Therefore, FRITZER would not be returned if you are searching for FRITZ. However, a message with the name Fritz HAMBURG would be returned, because the word Fritz was found. All searches are case insensitive. Plurals of search names are also supported. The plural support is only for plurals made by adding an "s". In other words, FRITZ and FRITZS will both be found.

     You send commands to MESSEAR via this web site. Your commands will be processed during the next search pass. Search passes are usually made once a day. Therefore, you should have a reponse within a day.