Searching for lost files in Time Machine

Question

I save all of the E-mail messages to and from selected friends. I had thousands of such messages in the MAIL folder that was labeled, "Local E-mail (I also have a similar file entitled "Overseas E-mail)". Anyway, one moment, my entire "Local E-mail" file was gone, and I couldn't find it again. I believe this happened when I was deleting some MAIL files that I no longer wanted, and I might have accidentally clicked on the wrong file. I have to assume that all of the missing files can be found in Time Machine, but I have never found searches there to be particularly productive. I would apprecIate ideas on how to go about retrieving the missing file)s).

Answer 1

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
          Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Inside it are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select  Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
          File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Choose Apple Mail as the format and import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.