As most of you know, I am a retired teacher. And teachers present lessons. Today, I'm going to share a personal account as it might be a learning experience for all of you who need to hire researchers or have done research for others. I was really bottomed out today and almost gave up doing research for others after 24 years locally. I am still saddened but decided it only makes me feel badly and accomplishes nothing else. And, maybe a lesson can be learned. I am not seeking sympathy. The names have been changed in this e-mail to protect the source. I was hired, reluctantly, to do a 4-hour research job on a male I'll call John Smith. I tried several times to discourage the individual as the only thing he/she had was that John had been found on the 1810 and 1820 Barren Co census. But, the individual was determined and I finally conceded to try with NO guarantee for that early time period. I repeated several times that I could not guarantee I could find anything. Yesterday, I spent all day working on this individual, throwing in an extra hour at no charge - and after the preponderance of evidence was sorted through, I knew that her John Smith was not the John Smith of Barren Co. I had been instructed to work with the 1810-1820 census, not to worry about land records and see if I could gather all possible information on John, where he came from (supposedly one of the Carolinas); his wife's name, parents' names, etc. So I did what any researcher would do: 1 - checked tax records to see when he started paying taxes and when he stopped, giving a better idea of his length of time here. 2 - checked the deeds anyway to see if there was a reference backward to the Carolinas for a land sale, settlement of estates, etc. 3 - checked church records to determine if he had joined a church here which would normally verify his wife's first name at least and perhaps adult children (he was born in the 1780s). 4 - checked marriages to see if any of his children married here and possibly showed a permission slip from he or his wife. 5 - checked Circuit Court records that are available to see if he had been involved in any case here. 6 - checked miscellaneous books- surveys, tavern bonds, wills for the death possibly of family members, guardianship bonds, indentures, strays book, etc. to pick up any paper trail. 7 - Went to the Cultural Center to check for family files or books done on the individual's family. Etc. etc. Today I received a scathing e-mail from the individual with language I could not repeat on the list. Basically the individual accused me of taking her money and running; it seems he/she wanted me to gather ALL the information from the 1810-1820 census only and that I had wasted her money in searching all these other records! The only thing I can think of is that the individual thought that the 1810-1820 census would list wife, children, where they came from and everything desired. I wrote the individual again and explained why a researcher has to check other records and that the census records of that date show only the head of household and "tick" marks for various age categories of the possible children. No reply of course. Under threats of being blackmailed basically and the individual's attempt to destroy my reputation, I go on. Lesson: If you hire a researcher, there is never a guarantee that he/she can find anything, especially in the earliest times when they left the county. The researcher must also check all the available records for that time period in the hopes of finding some document, some family connection, some record. When the person is not here, there is nothing to be found. The name being searched was fairly common and although one of the man's sons said his father was born "in Kentucky", a search brought up about 50 other men with the same name scattered all over the state. But the individual had found John's name on the census and stopped looking. The individual will not accept that the man with that name here is not the correct one even though the dates of birth are off 40 years on the one the individual wants and the one here; none of the children show up ..... the mind is made up. So, we all need to remind ourselves that sometimes research jobs yield limited or no results. There is no full-proof guarantee. We work hard, we don't cheat people, and we earn our fee. And that we must be willing to look elsewhere and accept that maybe the biography was wrong or the name all too familiar. I'm off my soap box now. Again, no sympathy needed on this but it is the first time anyone has spoken so fiercely and refused to acknowledge they were wrong! Maybe some day the individual will look at the report again and say "gee, the guy in Barren Co can't be my ancestor!" Sandi