I've used the speak with/listen to ancestors as a way for the players to
gain information from a different angle. When they are investigating
situations then they can go to clan contacts etc or they can try the
ancestors - and a simple contest with speak gives me an idea of how relevant
the ancestor is (difficulty is dependent upon the obscurity of the
information sought) and, if you want to, a listen to ancestors indicates how
well the information they have is interpreted.
I have introduced several ancinet ancestors that they might go back to in
the future for specific information...