McDOTS, McUNDERLINES, and McSPACES by Diana E. Roche rochede@wt.net For years, I have been searching various databases for the elusive ancestors of my great-great-grandfather, John McKINZIE, born 1810 in Maryland, under a variety of spellings -- McKINZIE, MacKENZIE, McKENZIE, McKENSEY, and more. One day I accidentally stumbled onto a group of McKINZIEs in a database who were listed as MC KINZIE -- with a space between the C and K. I did a new search with the space and came up with lots of new names that had been entered with the space in the name. By sheer coincidence, within a few days I had found yet other unusual ways the name (in all forms) had been listed in various databases. Some names had been entered with an underscore between the C and K (MC_KINZIE) and there were even entries for MC.KINZIE -- McDots! With so many of my ancestors' names starting with MC it occurred to me that searching with a space or dot or underscore between the C and the next letter in any of them might yield more results, so I searched on all variations. Paydirt! There were my McGEEs listed as MC.GEE, MC GEE, and MC_GEE. PERMISSION TO REPRINT articles from MISSING LINKS is granted unless specifically stated otherwise, PROVIDED: (1) the reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; and (2) the following notice appears at the end of the article: Written by Diana E. Roche rochede@wt.net . Previously published by Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, Missing Links, Vol. 6, No. 10, 7 March 2001. RootsWeb: http://www.rootsweb.com/