The Timeline feature was extremely useful in finding information because it helped filter out the possible links that were published outside the timeperiod being searched.

I know that by accessing the archive feature in Google News, part of the timeline tool can still be used.  But this covers only certain newspapers.  It does not cover periodicals, directories, books etc., for which Timeline was an invaluable filter in finding kernels of information from all the chaff.  The set custom date feature is absolutely worthless.  Often it gives no results, and if one returns to standard search, lots of results are listed, including results dating from the custom date feature.

I also know I can try a separate search using Google books using the Any Time feature, which works somewhat better than Google News archive.  However, the timeline aspect is of limited use and value.  If I search for Daniel Sharp Ford and limit the search period to the Nineteenth Century, I get over 5,000 hits in Google books, and no ability to readily sort by year within that entire period.

By removing Timeline from basic web search, and leaving remnants scattered in other parts of Google search, searching becomes much more fragmented, inefficient, and difficult, with no assurance that one is retrieving all the links that one could previously and readily find using the Timeline feature in the Web Search.

Is there any way currently of using some combination of search tools to reproduce the entirety of the results one could previously generate by year or decade using Timeline?