One thing to keep in mind is how a name might sound spoken by and Irishman and heard by the non- Irish census taker. Mary easily becomes Marie and Helen becomes Eileen, I’m sure one can think of other. “mistakes” that may occur. Also copies of censuses, with the handwritten entries, are often difficult to decipher. In my own case one census taker wrote the first name and it looked like Mimms to two LSD aides, and it probably was written as Morris- incorrect spelling, but that was how it sounded to the census taker. (actually spelled Maurice by my ancestor). I have the Irish Catholic baptismal records of my ancestor's family from the early 1800’s, none have middle names listed. They probably were given Baptismal names- but those are not listed. I tend to think that as some of the children were named after the father or mother they probably were called by their Baptismal names to avoid confusion. My thoughts are that the marriage certificate of an ancestor may give the most reliable version of their name. Death certificates only will show the information available to the informant. For example in my family: Gt.Gt.Grandfather- was named Patrick (DORAN). Marriage certificate says Patrick. His son(my Gt. Grandfather) was named Thomas- Baptismal records show Patrick as his father. When Thomas, a widower, died his daughter (my Grandmother) was probably the informant and she listed Thomas' father as Michael . (Michael was Thomas' grandfather, Patrick's father- long dead) Patrick died on route to the US and his wife (ANN PIERCE) died long before Thomas. If all the information I had was the death certificate of my Gt Grandfather, tracing my ancestors would have been more difficult. Pam <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.