Marian I also belong to ancestry.com. I think what you should do to search is to click on the exact year 1850 then when the yellow box comes up click on EXACT Match....Type in the SURNAME ..state and county. I did that for SMITH and came up with 63 in Dist 31 Lee Co VA. Ialso did the same for the yellow box and it brought up 3000 for all over the states.. Milly WARD Piros My mind is lightning one brilliant flash and pooooffffffffffffffffffffff it's gone. Rootsweb Administrator for Anderson, Campbell and Fentress Tennessee Counties