<<Minor variations in spelling made a difference in the staff's responses> One other variation to mention--problems caused by old handwriting: I requested a death certficate for Bethena Black (She was single). I paid $12.00 and received back a "Failure to Find" response. Later, I subsribed to Ancestry.com on-line which has the Alabama Death Index. Looking at the surname BLACK for the county where Bethena died, I did not find Bethena. However, I did see someone in the index named Mip B. Black. Thinking Mip was an odd name, I asked my mother who is 90 and knew all the Blacks in the county, "Did we have a relative named or nicknamed Mip?" She said no. Months later, I finally realized that the title Miss in the old handwriting had been mis-transcribed and possibly mis-filed as Mip, and Mip B. Black was actually Miss B. Black, the initial B. standing for Bethena. I was then able to send them the Volume, Page, and Certificate number, so they found it. It is hard to think of all possibilities for error, but using the index can be helpful if the name is! transcribed and filed correctly. I use this same process of thinking of all possible spelling variations and transcription errors when I check census or other indexes or when I type names into a search engine to run searches on the internet of archives or message boards. I also use different spellings when I post a query because someone might search for the name using one, but not the other spelling. My g-grandfather's first name was spelled Ivy, Ivey, Ivie, and even Iva in various records, so I use at least two or three of the spellings in any query I write about him, so it can be found when someone searching for him uses a different spelling. In the library's census index Ivey's name was listed as Joey and Jofy, not even close to Ivey. His common last name MORRIS has been listed as MARRIS, MORIS, MORRICE, and others. I won't even mention some of the problems in spelling caused by pronunciation, accents, and ways of speaking that were very different from some of ours today.