Maureen, The books were a compilation of information that the people were able to gather at the time. Informaton came from obits they could find from the newspapers, court records, information submitted by family members. So the books are not all inclusive, but they are a wealth of knowledge on people you do find.. There have been people I have looked for the "just knew" they would be listed in the books, but not. Then I had a family that had twins, one twin only lived a short time, but no one else I had talked with had information concerning this other than it happened.. I sure didn't expect to find anything on him. I was just going through the Index on each looking for the family name....lo and behold, there was the father's name. When I checked this out, it was definitely my family. This was my verification plus it gave me a little additional information. We guessed he was buried in our family cemetery, but there is no marker. The obit verified it. From time to time, we do get lucky. :) The index of each book lists all names contained in the book. Pulling a name out of the air (I don't know if there is even a person on the cd's by this name), if the article showd where Nancy Jane Smith died, the index contained not only her name but the name of each person contained in the article (children, husband, neighbor...anyone) Many of these older obits were really a story about a person, very personal compared to what we have today. They really make for interesting reading even if they are not your family. Sue -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 7:40 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Richardson look-ups David, Thank you very much for taking the time to look up these 2 family members. It is very much appreciated and you got the right ones also. (Not sure why Margaret does not have an obit. I rechecked her dates for the Bloomfield Cemetery and 1902 is correct. Maybe the family never did one for her.) Maureen ______________________________