Kelly F,

Thanks for replying, and quickly.

The problem with the suggested alternatives to replace Timeline is they either don't work, or function poorly.  It seems that Google has discontinued a functional search tool, and replaced it with a much poorer tool(s).

Let me illustrate using a specific example..  A search for Daniel Sharp Ford and the various search results.  (Ford was born in 1822 and died in 1899.)

Using standard web search:

"Daniel Sharp Ford",  6,800 results

Daniel Sharp Ford,  182,000,000 results

Using news archives:

Daniel Sharp Ford, 74,600 results

"Daniel Sharp Ford", 49 results

"Daniel Sharp Ford" using custom date range (01/01/1822 - 01/01/1922), 5 results.

Using Google books:

Daniel Sharp Ford, 195,000

"Daniel Sharp Ford" using Any Time (a no dates filter), 10,500.

Daniel Sharp Ford using 19th Century as an Any Time filter, 6,730.

"Daniel Sharp Ford" using 19th Century as an Any Time filter, 37

Daniel Sharp Ford using /ngram viewer with a date range of 1800-1900, zero results.
____________
Thus, it is now feast or famine. What Timeline allowed one to do was refine the results by readily going to a specific year or decade, and looking at the results for that period, and to do so in a consolidated manner within the basic web search function.

And now, I can't even reconcile why an identical search term used in searching Google books yields more results than when the same search term in used in a basic web search.

Sorry to say, but it doesn't seem that discontinuing Timeline has made research any easier, or simpler, or less demanding of one';s time.

Thanks again though for replying.