> I have several situations where a person listed as a mother in law > is living with her son. > i.e. > Jim Jones B 1803; > Mary Jones B:1780 mother-in-law. > > Since her maiden name probably is not Jones, What name do you > enter as the name of her husband? > > Keith Nuttle <keith_nuttle@sbcglobal.net> First in your example is it not a mother living with her son-in-law, and shouldn't her surname be different than Jim's? If the surnames are the same then more likely she's Jim's step-mother, rather than mother-in-law, unless at that time the two terms were interchangeable. When I have this situation where the first name of an individual is unknown I enter Unk. (Mr.) Jones, and when a woman's first name is also unknown I enter Unk. (Miss), I have used [Unknown] (unknown with left and right brackets) when the surname is unknown. My genealogy program has a feature where it remembers surnames so whenever I have an unknown surname I only have to enter a left bracket and it fills is the rest. Gerry <MeetMe@Three.com>