This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: mlhook Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.unknown/7554.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Thanks, Carol. I could sure use some help! I have repeatedly searched the Massachusetts Town & Vital Records 1620-1988 file: http://search.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=2495&iid=40143_268437__0008-00000) without success. >From the last remaining daughter, the name is: Monica M. Byers, born 12/25/1896 in Lowell. Parent: Antoni Byers & Josephine Pilus, both from Germany &/or Lithuania. I am working on getting her death certificate & ss record. We are assuming that there are going to be many phonetic versions of her name. I'm finding Ancestry to be very frustrating, because when I search, it returns thousands of useless hits. When I enter 'exact' info, such as dob, it returns zero records. It would be great if I could do a search for ALL of Massachusetts with only the dob of 12/25/1896 and no other data. I believe she married in New York, but I have no data on what year. She died on Staten Island NY November, 1977. According to the 1920/30/40 census, Anna was born & lived in New Jersey, but only her married name appears on those reports. There are no other links there, but I will continue to dig. I appreciate any help or advice you might have. Thanks again! Mary Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.