Found a little tip on another list that I never even thought of trying! Thought I would pass it on to you guys: When searching Ancestry.com for a rather common surname, for marriages, births etc. Put a less common spouses/parents name as the GIVEN NAME in the search box. It doesnt look at it as the persons First Name, it searches the databases for occurances of both words on the SAME page in a database. Instead of looking for John Smith and finding John Frankenburger and Ellie Smith on a huge page of people, you can look for John Smith and his wife's family, a cousins family, or any other surname that you know to be highly associated with YOUR Smiths. This might turn up some interesting results...census: You find where both surnames resided close together (thats how they chose spouses usually...proximity), both names listed as parents in marriage records, etc. People traveled in groups....search for them in groups! Big help in the World Tree too! http://www.ancestry.com or click here for a quick <A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~KHuish/ancestor.htm">Ancestry.com Search Box</A> Kathy (AKA Firstmom) <A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~KHuish/index.html">Firstmoms Genealogy Resources & Records</A>