We should always be cognizant of the AF disclaimer. With millions of submissions, it would be impossible to check the records for accuracy. In using AF, be aware that the information is only as reliable as the person who submitted it. Some people are very conscientious, some are sloppy, some just don't know any better are have submitted work done by other family members. Unfortunately, AF records don't have notes (I thought the update was supposed to allow it, but I haven't seen any). My note records take up about 2/3 of the space on the disks when I do a backup, so I can understand why AF doesn't show any notes submitted on GEDCOMs. AF should be regarded as a start. When I first got PAF 4 1/2 years ago and started downloading from AF, I was extremely frustrated at errors and omissions. I spent so much time correcting files (especially duplicate spouses) that I wondered whether it was worth it and if I should have simply entered the date from my own family group records and pedigree charts. I wasn't a member of the church then, either, so the ordinance dates weren't important. Surprise, surprise, the missionaries came to my door about 10 months later. Now, having the ordinance dates has saved my time in checking against the IGI (though I still do that anyway for missing links). One of my pet peeves is people who don't show all the children in a family, but only their direct line. AARGH!! When downloading a GEDCOM from AF (or the IGI), I create a new PAF file on a floppy and add the GEDCOM to that file. Then I run the checks for duplicates, errors, etc. and fix records. Sometimes there are formatting errors (records in GEDCOM too long for field, for example) which show up as notes and also in the listing file. I create a new GEDCOM from the corrected file and add that to my main file. It's a lot easier than trying to fix your main file and having to resort to a backup when you find lots of errors in the added records. But I am sure glad I don't have Scandinavian ancestors. The patronymic system drives me bonkers. In doing my handcart research, I found at least 10 "Christian Christensen" or variants in the 1870 census alone, all born within five years. How on earth am I ever supposed to figure out which one was with the 9th HC company? There was also one with the 10th HC in the same year. I read recently that the government (or some group) in Denmark is trying to encourage people to adopt new surnames. Seems that about 75% of the population has one of about six surnames.