The lister is looking for information about the subject couple. I am throwing in my two cents worth as to how the researcher MAY try to solve the problem (no guarantees in genealogy). I was attempting to track down information concerning the author of a letter to my great-grandfather, who died in Texas in 1881. The letter-writer, who lived in Kansas City, MO after the Civil War, had written a detailed letter about his wife's death and funeral, but I did not know his last name!!!!. If only I knew the name of that cousin--he signed *Cousin Robert* but gave Kansas City, Missouri and a date. Somewhat later, I learned that the Missouri Historical Society had a vast collection of Missouri newspapers, some of which were filmed, and many which were too fragile to film. I wrote to the Historical Society and asked whether they could furnish me with the names of several resarchers who used their facility for research--enclosing a SASE for a reply, as we all did prior to the advent of the internet for civilians. A list of three persons was furnished. I chose the top one--a lady who later won an award for her genealogical abilities--and she was able to find an obscure newspaper from Kansas City [a legal newspaper] for the date I was seeking. She found an obituary of the young wife of the cousin because the cousin was an attorney. The obituary gave the full name of the widower, his wife's maiden name, information about their former residence--Logan Co., IL, etc. The researcher got so excited that she followed up by viewing the appropriate censuses, making my job of jumping back to Illinois and then Kentucky even easier. The two men were maternal cousins. Then a county history of Sangamon Co., IL and a biography of the cousin's brother told even more about the cousin's parents, including some genealogy of their mother's family. Wonderful! And this information clicked with other old letters we had in the extended family. We all take chances (with hope in our genealogists' hearts). If you have an ancestor--or a collateral--who lived in Missouri, you might seek the current repository which holds the Missouri newspapers, and you may discover tidbits about your ancestor--or his associates. Even if that ancestor came from Tennessee or elsewhere but went to that great attraction called Missouri, take a chance. I have found that some OLD county histories have nuggets of information--a tidbit here and a tidbit there. If the information is being given by a grandchild, however, be VERY wary. Try to prove or disprove that information. There may be one bit of truth and a lot of distortion, as I found in a good county history of a Kentucky county--but the biographies were distorted. Many of these county histories have been filmed by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and the older the better. Also, DAR Library in Washington DC has many county histories. And do not overlook genealogical periodicals for the counties in which you search. I have found some wonderful indexes--marriages, probates, land entries, etc. in some of those journals. Unfortunately, some of the county periodicals have deteriorated as the years have gone by. PERSI which is on the online genealogical database called HeritageQuest [subscribed to by many public libraries, is an index [not the images] of some of these county genealogical periodicals. We all have to be detectives. That is why dates and places are SO IMPORTANT. When online queries do not include DATES, I delete them. I don't have time to play that kind of game. E.W.Wallace