I found out that you can search on Ancestry without a surname - even without any name at all. I used this to discover the brother of my g-g-g-grandfather. I knew that Philip married his wife Hellen in St. Louis in 1863 and lived there until his death in 1880. It was reasonable to find him there in 1870 and possibly 1860, but never had any luck finding him. I searched the 1870 census on the following for his wife: First name: Hellen Residence: Missouri Birthplace: Mississippi That was enough unique info to come up with just 2 hits, one of which was my Hellen. It also proved to me once again that surnames were too often completely mangled by census takers. Philip's surname was Blaustern, but he usually went by the English translation of Bluestar. The family is listed in 1870 as Brewster and Philip is single and listed as Brewsten in 1860. I never would have come up with BREWSTER or BREWSTEN as derivatives of my BLAUSTERN/BLAUSTEIN/BLAUSTEN surname. If only this trick would work with my hidden Henry/Heinrich and Issabella Leibrecht/Lebright! I know they were in NYC in 1870 and had at least 2 children by then but I can't find them no matter how hard I search. I did get a chuckle last night when I found a Henry ELVES. The name goes nicely with his occupation (same as my Henry -- a shoemaker) but I really don't think that ELVES is a very German surname. ;-) Lisa * * * * Lisa Thompson researching: BLAUSTERN/BLAUSTEIN/BLAUSTEN in Manhattan & Maspeth DAVIS in Manhattan WADDELL in NJ, Brooklyn and Maspeth LEIBRECHT/LEBRECHT/LEBRIGHT in Manhattan & Maspeth and hoping to one day find Mary and/or Georgina MURRAY in NYC/NJ -- anywhere!!!!