I have just posted to the GENBRIT list, in answer to a query, a little tip I learnt quite a few years ago now when researching at FreeBMD. Many listers may already be familiar with it, and I apologise to them for being boring (!), but some newer listers and novices to family history may not have discovered it yet, so I hope it may help them. This little trick I discovered can be very useful indeed if you have an unusual surname and especially for those doing one-name studies. Here it is..... When researching at FreeBMD, try this..... 1) Leave the surname field blank. 2) Enter into the first name field your surname of interest with either a plus sign or an asterisk in front of it - this is vital and either the plus symbol or an asterisk both work. 3) Select All Types and press the Search button. What you will get is a list of events (births, marriages and deaths) in which your surname of interest appears as a MIDDLE forename. To give an example, if I enter "+STOCKDILL" or "*STOCKDILL", I get the following results..... Marriages Sep 1844 COGHILL Robert Stockdill Leeds 23 371 Births Sep 1847 Firth Thomas Stockdill Hunslet 23 317 Deaths Jun 1863 Firth Thomas Stockdill Kirkstall 9b 145 Births Sep 1863 RIDOUT Sarah Stockdill Shaftesbury 5a 237 Deaths Sep 1873 Cooper George Stockdill 0 Leeds 9b 325 Marriages Dec 1883 Middlebrook John Stockdill Bradford Y 9b 101 Marriages Sep 1885 Ridout Sarah Stockdill Lambeth 1d 856 Births Jun 1893 France Robert Stockdill Bradford, Y. 9b 116 Births Mar 1896 Middlebrook Stockdill Dewsbury 9b 558 All of the above FreeBMD entries led me to research further and to discover why the people concerned had the middle name of Stockdill. Entering my principal GOONS name of STOCKDALE produced a far, far greater number of entries, as did entering my secondary one-name study surname of WORSNOP. Try it for yourselves! You may be surprised by what it can lead to, especially branches of your family you never knew existed. It works best, inevitably, with uncommon surnames. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE