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