highlight the account name in left pane. rightclick and select settings. On settings page, there is a place to define how TB handles deleted messages.

David,

Thanks for the Left Pane hint - I never would have connected "Local Folders" as the "Account Name"! Thanks to you, I have found the "Server Setting" but the only options there that seem to reference deleted emails were:

  __ Leave Messages on Server
      __ For at most _ days
      __ Until I delete them  

Nothing was checked in this option. I've tried enabling (1) Leave Messages alone and also (2) Leave Messages together with Until I delete - Neither option triggered deleted emails showing up in the Trash.

And

  __ Empty Trash on Exit                      _Advanced_

Enabling Empty Trash on Exit and exiting did get rid of all the old deleted email from more than three weeks ago so it does appear to do something but I can't see anyway it is useful for my problem. Clicking the Advanced flag brings up another menu which seems to set the relationship for fetching new email from my earthlink.net account and where they will be stored - none of which seems useful for my problem.

I may be missing something obvious in the terminology like "Account Name" = "Local Folders" (or just living up to my screen name, Dumbowsky!), but could you please specify the setting to which you were referring?

Thanks again! Bud Crain

In the server settings page, look for "when I delete a message" - It's just above the area where 'empty trash on exit' is.

When I Right Click on "Local Folders" and then select "Server Settings" I get the following screen:

Server Settings

 Server Type   POP Mail Server      Port 110  Default 110
 Server Name  pop.earthlink.net
 User Name     bbcrain

Security Settings

 Connection security:         None
 Authentication method:    Password transmitted insecurely 

Server Settings

 * Check for new messages at startup
 * Check for new messages every 10 minutes
 * Automatically download new messages
 _ Fetch headers only
 _ Leave messages on server
    _ For at most __ days
    _ Until I delete them

Message Storage

 _ Empty trash on exit                                                                           Advanced           
 Message storage type: ______________
 Local Directory: C:\Users\bbcra\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\....   Browse

There is NO "When I delete a message" option either above "Empty trash on exit" or anywhere else that I've been able to go by playing with the other options. (As a total aside, could you recommend a capture screen utility that works on these pages?)

When I clicked post reply it made several changes to the body of the screen representation:

  It put a blank line between the lines "Message Storage" and  "  _ Empty trash on exit" 
  It added a scroll bar so the "Advanced" flag on the end of the line 
    "  _ Empty trash on exit" could be seen.

Sorry about that, but as I indicated my only screen capture utility won't work with these pages??

My error. I use IMAP and was looking at my own settings. I did just set up a POP account to see better what you're seeing and I, like you, see no options to fix this. My only suggestion at this point would be to reinstall TB.

I have a solution, but its just more of a mystery to me. I was waiting for a church meeting to start and happened to be seated next to the IT guy for the church telling my tale of woe over lost emails and he had the answer. He told me to toggle the little "Unread" flag on and off several times and see what happens. I did and IT WORKED. He said they had this happen in an office where he previously worked several years ago and wasn't even sure it was the same email client but he remembered it as being the same problem.

I guess you can mark this one closed, I'm only out all the trash emails that I inadvertently deleted playing with the setting. Every thing seems to be working now. Thanks for the help.