...Several prominent genealogists have research theories on how to solve identity problems concerning female ancestors. ....used a three-step process in her article "Mary Hale, Wife of Deacon Edward Putnam, Accuser in the Salem Witchcraft Trials". 1. Identify all reasonable possibilities. 2. Eliminate all but one of the possibilities. 3. Identify and strengthen links to support the remaining possibility. ....in a lecture titled "Finding Females: Wives, Daughters, Mothers, Sisters, and Paramours" says you should reconstruct the lives of all the males associated with the woman: her husband, father, son and brother. By analyzing the data on these men and their relatives, classmates, business partners, military buddies, community associates and neighbors, you will also find information about the women. .....suggests in her lecture "Finding females on the Frontier: Records and Strategies Using Nineteenth-Century Midwest Examples" that researchers first identify the specific problem (origin, identity, disappearance), then fix the woman in time and place with a known fact closest to the problem. For example, if a known fact is the birth of a child or a marriage, begin your search at that time and locality. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com