One can use the same idea when looking for foreign born family members with sometimes unpronounceable or spellable names. My grandfather used the spelling Steven Gonzol and came from Hungary. I knew what county in NJ he lived in 1920, however wasn't sure of the town. I used every spelling I could think of for Gonzol and soundex, however no luck. I finally found him using a look up on every male around his age with a birth place of Hungary/Austria-Hungary/Magyar in Middlesex County and looked for a close enough name. I finally found him listed as Stefan Guernsey. In looking at the census one has to think like a detective and cover all angles. Census takers wrote what they heard, spelled what they knew, and sometimes ignored what they didn't understand or could not spell. With foreign ancestors, one sometimes has to take the back door to find them. Jackie Lubinski -----Original Message----- From: Elizabeth Engle [mailto:lizengle@comcast.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 1:53 AM To: WELLS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [WELLS-L] Re: Vol. 6, #47 Creative use of the census Following up on Mary Beth, Cindy, and Orin's remarks on getting the best results from the census: Regarding the spelling (misspelling?) of names in the census: In 1934 we lived for a year in a rented house on a certain street in my home town. I wanted to include a more detailed account of those days in the memoires I am preparing for my children, but needed the correct address for that house. I knew the house had belonged to a man named "Grimshaw," and I also knew his first name and his wife's name. So I searched for Grimshaw in the 1930 census for that small town with absolutely no luck. But then I remembered living next door to us on that street a playmate whose last name was "Courtway." A search on "Courtway" turned up the next-door-neighbor in 1930 whose surname was given as "Gremilion" not "Grimshaw," but the two given names were correct. In this way I was able to ascertain the correct address for my childhood residence. The handwriting of the census taker was so terrible that it was easy to see how a recorder got "Gremilion" out of "Grimshaw," but if it hadn't been for that extra "Courtway" clue I never would have been successful. A search by Soundex turned up 100-plus names but never "Gremilion." So I guess what I am trying to say is "get creative in your search of the census and leave no tern unstoned." (Searching for my Harriet Townsend WELLS Trumbull and her brother Robert WELLS - NY, Ohio, and Kansas. 1798-1870) Cheers, Elizabeth Engle