Miriam Pollak raises several interesting questions concerning her "find" of her great grandmother's last name apparently being SFERDLIN as recorded on the marriage certificate. Naturally she is excited but as always a measure of caution ought to be thrown into the pot. Is this name real? Is it possible there might have been an error. Miriam didn't say whether the certificate was hand-written or typed. Either way, looking on Google for both names, what do we find? For SWIDLER there are over 300,000 hits, and for SFERDLIN, there are - none! I'm not saying this is conclusive, but it is, I think always a good idea when inserting a name into a database to do a broad search just to get a sense of "weight." that is, what is one dealing with, a large number of people with that name or not many at all? For example I am helping someone in California with the last name of ZEAVE, a nice, unusual name. There are only four instances (since 1894) of it appearing in the California Death Index, so I am getting a sense of how often it crops up, the likelihood of my running across it - slim to nothing. And yes, they are all related (two couples). So Miriam should also be careful as well. I'm not saying that this couldn't have been her maiden name, but it does give one a moment for pause when there are NO hits on Google. If I were Miriam, I would check out all the databases on JewishGen, which are more focused towards Jewish names and see if it crops up there. The other thing I usually suggest is to submit the name to a Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex test and see what the variants are (you can do this on JewishGen). After all, there really isn't that much difference between SWIDL and SFERDL parts of the names (remember the W will have a V or F sound to it). It's only the last two letters that are causing the problem. Again, I am helping someone else with the GUTES last name. I was able to show how wildly the spelling can be to obtain similar sounds, GUTES or CHODESH both share the same D-M soundex. Good luck, Jeremy -- Jeremy G Frankel ex Edgware, London, England Berkeley, California, USA EBIN: Russia, New York, USA FRANKEL: Poland, London, England GOLDRATH/GOLD: Praszka, Poland, London, England KOENIGSBERG: Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, London, England, NYC, NY, USA LEVY (later LEADER): Kalisz, Poland, London, England PRINCZ/PRINCE: Krakow, Poland, London, England, NYC, NY, USA