Hi to all: Let me give one example of a reason to be careful when using WPA-extracted records. When I was searching early Barbour County records, transcribed by the WPA, the first name "Jepe" kept showing up. Being new to the area at the time, I thought it was a uniquely West Virginian name. Then I searched the original record, and found that all those "Jepe"s were actually "Jesse", written with the old double "s" that very strongly resembles a "p". I was glad I had searched an original, or I would have a lot of "Jepe"s in my family that noone else would ever find! So, be careful. Use the WPA records as a finding tool, then go to the originals, if available. Linda in Utah Merikay Mestad wrote: > > > >Patti, > >Wes Cochran's address is 2515 10th Ave., Parkersburg, WV 26101-5829, and > >you can get a list of his books and cost at > >www.rootsweb.com/~wvwood/wes.htm. He pays postage and usually sends my > >orders by return mail. > > Wes' books are a great help, but, if I remember right, he used WPA > abstracted records for some of his books and there are some > differences/omissions from the original records. Always pays to go to the > original if it is a direct ancestor.