If you are relying on an index to find your ancestor, you sometimes have to be very creative in your thinking. I have an immigrant family that appears in 4 census years. The only year that the name was spelled correctly was in 1930. The correct surname began with a T. In 1920, the first letter was an S (Never found it on an index search), 1910 an F, 1900 an M. The whole name was spelled a variety of different ways. In this case, a soundex search didn't work. The only way I was able to find the family was viewing the images for the whole county. The only correct first name was the head of the family, the rest had "American" first names (as did almost all the immigrants listed in that particular ED). Since the family did not speak English very well and the census taker was not of their nationality, it is not hard to figure out why there were errors. In viewing census images, I have seen Dr. before the Surname, before the first name and also after the middle initial. Names have been reversed, middle initials appear directly after the Surname, and sometimes there is no first name listed. I have also seen Mr. or Mrs. listed as the first name. Double letters aren't always listed, or they use other ways or symbols to list the double letter. Sometimes letters are left out, which could change the soundex code Two female ancestors didn't go by their given names. Barbara went by Ella and Mary went by Emma. No they were not their middle names. My mother went by her middle name for 45 years, then switched to her first name. One male ancestor kept switching from name to initials, another went by a nickname (Bud) that had nothing to do with his first or middle name. Why Bud? There were 15 men with the first name of James in this particular family. At the time Bud was living 5 other James were also. The others went by Jim, Jimmy, middle names or initials. I didn't mean for this to go on so long, but I have run across alot of different things. Thought I would pass this along for the people that are having problems searching. As I said at the beginning, be creative in searching the indexes. Hope this may help someone in their research. Jane