Dear Kevin in Biggin-on-the-bump - thanks for that suggestion - I just hope that it will stay online long enough for searches to be made, as it is obviously going to be a problem. Goodness knows why they have not managed to fix it by now - these IT whizzkids are supposed to be so brilliant and are paid such incredible salaries, you would think they could have fixed it in two weeks flat and here it is nearly 8 months - unreal! I will be trying every kind of combination, including putting the forename as the surname as that is apparently another trick with the Italian research - It would be just great if I could find a record of him to give me his birth place. Cheers Eunice At 20:34 15/08/02 +0100, you wrote: >Eunice, >When it does come back I would be very liberal with your choice of >spelling.... GIOLA springs to mind immediately, but try every combination. >Remember that the index was nearly 80% transcribed on the Indian >sub-continent - it is no coincidence that the most popular surname in the >index is 'DITTO', closely followed by 'DO' . >Kevin, Biggin-on-the-Bump, Kent, England. >