I don't and haven't used for a number of years, my mother's maiden name for passwords on anything including bank cards etc. My mother was a modern woman back in the 1930 and 40's and kept her maiden name until she left the work force for a few years. When she returned, she simply hyphenated it with the marriage name. Anyway, my mother's maiden name has always been available to any one. I elected to choice a different word because I have been doing genealogy 20+ years and knew that information was available to someone who wanted it. You can call your credit card companies/banks etc and change that password to one of your choosing. If they ask explain why, tell them that the information is readily available since you do genealogy. If enough people do this, then credit card companies will be able to offer alternatives. They did this because it was easy for the person to remember. But that was also before the days that woman began to keep their maiden names for business reasons and the explosion of genealogy. Joan Lund j-lund@uiuc.edu