Thanks to Clarice Stanley for those tips! Two words politicians and genealogists should avoid: "always" & "never." These tips on maiden names are great clues, often to help _confirm_ or _support_ speculations about a woman's maiden name, but of course we all realize it's not foolproof. (And, having played the fool enough times, I can testify to this from experience.) It may be like the "convention" as to how children were named, such as the first son being named for so-and-so, the next for so-and-so, etc. Nice when it was followed, but often it was not. Shoot, many of us can point to families where little William was born in 1854, then another William was born in 1863, etc. Has anyone ever run across a James McHenry? Or a dozen of them, all in the same generation, living within ten miles of each other? Arrgggh! First, obviously, IF the woman has relatives from her family in the area, names of witnesses on wills MIGHT apply. Many of us have inconsiderate ancestors who didn't think about our genealogical searches today, to bring relatives with them as they moved west, so just as often neighbors and friends were signers as witnesses. Mortgages: I wish I could find some of those, with those details. But we're talking, often, about a society so remote from county courthouses that such details sometimes went unrecorded. However, those kinds of details were often recorded more religiously than births. (pun intended) After all, we're talking money here! More paperwork: If you can locate them, don't ignore things like pension papers. My g-grandma applied for her [Civil War Vet's] widow's pension when g-grandpa died, and had to furnish affadavits from several witnesses, testifying to her poverty and need. Besides providing poignant reading about details of life of the 1890's, here were names and locations of children, grandchildren, and siblings who provided the needed affadavits. Search for other courthouse papers, such as lawsuits following a death or probate of a will. Families squabbled over land and inheritances. (Can you imangine that!?) I have such a family battle, with people named in a suit filed, giving me hints about who was who, and who kept in touch with whom, even though some folks moved two states away. Naturally, we all search for marriage records, hoping that gg-grandma's daddy signed her marriage application, since she was under age. It's no guarantee, as with one such case here. I have a man's name as witness, but again, he didn't have the consideration to tell me if he was her father or her brother, or just some other "Clements" in the neighborhood. OK, several paragraphs telling folks things they already know, but I just thought I'd mention them. Maybe someone else has some interesting tidbits and experiences they can share about where they uncovered that one special clue which finally revealed an ancestor? Oh - lastly: learn to read old German. Given the statistical chances that some of our ancestors were German ("Dutch," "Swiss," etc.) we might come across old church records in old Pennsylvania, written in classic old German, needing translation. Or, with a real bit of luck, you may trace g-g-g-g-anestor Heinrich back to Saxony or somewhere, and win the lottery so you can travel there, and find the local records from 1724 still intact, so you can read them. If you do (win the lottery, go to Germany, and can read the old records), give me a call, OK? I have this one ancestor... jim + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + - James Wiley, AKA [email protected]