BlankPlease pardon duplicate list postings - this looked like an important search tip. McDOTS, McUNDERLINES, and McSPACES (reprinted from Missing Links) by Diana E. Roche [email protected] For years I have been searching various databases for the elusive ancestors of my great-great-grandfather, John McKINZIE, born 1810 in Maryland, under a variety of spellings -- McKINZIE, MacKENZIE, McKENZIE, McKENSEY, and more. One day I accidentally stumbled onto a group of McKINZIEs in a database who were listed as MC KINZIE -- with a space between the C and K. I did a new search with the space and came up with lots of new names that had been entered with the space in the name. By sheer coincidence, within a few days I had found yet other unusual ways the name (in all forms) had been listed in various databases. Some names had been entered with an underscore between the C and K (MC_KINZIE) and there were even entries for MC.KINZIE -- McDots! With so many of my ancestors' names starting with MC it occurred to me that searching with a space or dot or underscore between the C and the next letter in any of them might yield more results, so I searched on all variations and hit pay dirt. There were my McGEEs -- listed as MC.GEE, MC GEE, and MC_GEE. [First published in MISSING LINKS, Vol. 6, No. 10, 7 March 2001] Reprinted in MISSING LINKS, Vol. 7, No. 11, 17 March 2002. See http://www.petuniapress.com/ --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.338 / Virus Database: 189 - Release Date: 3/14/02