Mike O'Brien wrote: > > Sorry Gwen. > There were no listing for ESTELITA/ESILITA in either the 1860 or 1870 census > index. > I couldn't guess at any variations. > Mike I can think of at least one - ESSELEDA. In the 1850, 1860, and 1870 Censuses, the enumerators tende to spell Spanish names phonetically. They were spelled like they sounded. This lead to some really interesting spellings. Also some of the hand-writing is a challenge to decipher. In the 1850 Census, my FELIZ family had their surname spelled FELIZ - FILLES - FALES. Another thought is that Spanish sometimes interchanged letters "s" = "z" and "i" = "y". I've found that to locate foreign names, it helps to say the names based on how it is spelled rather than looking at the spelling alone. Hope this helps, Anita C. Monterey County