Donna wrote: << Looking over the wills, some mention aliases. As example it may say John Bell alias Carpenter. << Does it mean the persons REAL NAME was Bell or that it was Carpenter? >> "REAL NAME" is not a useful distinction when an alias was used with (rather than instead of) another surname. Often, though by no means always, illegitimacy was behind the use of two names; one was the father's surname, the other the unmarried mother's. Adopting an alias might be done for reasons other than illegitimacy (to honor someone, for example), but regardless of the reason, there doesn't seem to have been an established pattern as to which name (father's or mother's, original or adopted) came first. A man might be known by two surnames, one an alias, throughout his life and so might his descendants; ultimately the word _alias_ might be omitted and the two surnames combined into a single, hyphenated one. Gene Z. ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour