Mary, I did find one Luella McDonald who died May 10, 1947 in Cook County, Illinois. She was a female/Negro under the Sex/Race column. Unfortunately, her age at death is unknown. The death certificate number is 0015307. I copied the following page from the archives so you can see that they do make mistakes in the Race column and also in the County column. Oddly enough, it uses McDonald as an example of how to do a thorough search. I did not try all of these but you could do it if you like. The URL is: _www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/archives.html_ (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/archives.html) Tips on Using the Database of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1950 Researchers should remember that the death index may contain spelling errors, incorrect data about the death and erroneous entries. Every attempt was made by the Illinois Department of Public Health to obtain accurate spellings of names. However, because the index was created from the original (usually handwritten) documents, the spellings of names were sometimes misinterpreted. Misspellings and incorrect data were also introduced simply through human error. When searching this index, we suggest that researchers check alternative spellings of names if they do not find an entry for the name for which they are searching. For example, the Illinois Department of Public Health may have data entered that contains incorrect vowels in spelling a name (e.g., the surname Hascall may be incorrectly spelled Hoscoll). Entering only the first few letters of a surname may be a more effective method of searching the database. Names beginning with prefixes such as Mc, Mac, O, Du, De, La, and Le may be spelled with or without a space between the prefix and the remainder of the surname. For example, you will find both Mc Donald and McDonald in the index as well as several entries that were entered as Mc@Donald. The index also shows O'Hara, O Hara, OHara and O@Hara. You must search all possible spellings to effectively locate persons with these prefixed surnames. The index also may contain incorrect information concerning the death. For example, the county of death may be shown as Lake County in the index, but the death actually occurred in LaSalle County. If you are unable to locate an ancestor in the death index, you should try a statewide search rather than limiting the search to a single county. Other errors in the index include showing the wrong sex or race for the decedent. For example, a female decedent may be shown as being a male (M) or a white decedent (W) might be shown as being a Negro (N). The abbreviation N/S in the sex/race field means NOT STATED. The date of death may also be incorrect. For example, some deaths occurring in 1936 were entered as 1935 deaths. Corrections to the Illinois Statewide Death Index, 1916–1950 ____________________________________ Since the Illinois Department of Public Health maintains this death index and it is an official record of that agency, the Illinois State Archives CANNOT make corrections. Requests for corrections to the death index should be made to the _Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records_ (http://www.idph.state.il.us/vitalrecords/index.htm) . (http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/home.html)