Jimmie Houchin wrote:
> I then close Thunderbird and copy the archive over 
> from the News folder to the Mail folder and voila I have the full 
> archive in my email and available to it searching capabilities.

Hi Jimmie, why this part ? I just subscribe to the newsgroup and when it 
asks how many to download, say download all (if necessary, unsubscribing 
and resubscribing to achieve this).

I agree, thunderbird is terrific for reading/searching/filtering the 
list archive. Gmane plug: http://squeak.joyful.com/lists shows which sq 
ueak lists are available on gmane and how to add new ones.