Right-click the Firefox desktop icon and open Properties.

On the Compatibility tab uncheck the box for Run this program in compatibility mode for: Windows 2000.

Then restart Firefox and see if that problem is solved.

If not, how about using this URL - http://home.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Thank you that get me into the index of files much better

but  still keeps me out of the files  

once I click on an individual file the connection times out ......

Like this site Firefox times out when i click to bring it up and this is only since a while ago as I have been using these site sine 1999

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~macfie/Albert_Leslie_Laing.html

You can try these steps in case of issues with web pages:

You can reload web page(s) and bypass the cache to refresh possibly outdated or corrupted files.

• Hold down the Shift key and left-click the Reload button
• Press "Ctrl + F5" or press "Ctrl + Shift + R" (Windows,Linux)
• Press "Command + Shift + R" (Mac)

Clear the cache and remove the cookies from websites that cause problems via the "3-bar" Firefox menu button (Options/Preferences).

"Clear the cache":

• Firefox/Options/Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Cached Web Content: "Clear Now"

"Remove the cookies" from websites that cause problems.

• Firefox/Options/Preferences -> Privacy -> "Use custom settings for history" -> Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

• Switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
• Do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Thank you for all that but i am 68 years old

i know how to turn the computer on and off , the rest is all guesswork I did do a malware scann and there is nothing on my machine

I tried that cookies operation a while back

I think it would just be better if I dumped Firefox and went back to that stupid explorer option .... i thought it would be a simple fix but does ot seem to be so