What a BRILLIANT idea - inspired! I've got a 5yr and 9yr old. I'll certainly try it next time I'm stuck :-) Heather Q MGS wrote: > Another tip if you can't find a family in an index > > Ask as many 6-9 year olds as you can find to write down the name, they will give you a variety of spellings to try! > > Marilyn

My advice has been to get a lisper to say the name to a class of partial dyslexics (in these days any class of 14 year olds would do) and get them to write down what they hear!! Not PC but you get the idea. My wife's maiden name was CHATTERLEY. Beside that and the common CHATTERLY I have a list of 38 other spellings that appear in the various censuses. There must be more as I am still missing people in specific years. What is worse is that, in 1881, a family whose name was CHURCHLEY was transcribed as CHATTERLEY, poor family, they were then CRUSCHLEY in 1891. The thing that caused me to sweat were that the parents had the same names as one of my CHATTERLEYs and both wives were born in Great Alne!!!! Mike