> 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. > > I host a couple of county pages in OK and KS, and I recommend leaving > off the starting Mc, Mac, Van, de's, etc. and using a generic searcher, > such as * or $or % (which one you use depends on the search engine), > before it . That way, they will pull up any possibilities. I > personally use the space between multi-part surnames when transcribing > because the first part of the name sometimes gets deleted or changed by > later generations. I know a man who changed his name to MacGregor, > even though his mother spelled the name McGregor, because he thought it > was more authentically Scots! > > Harriette > > The fingers got too fast on that previous letter. <sigh> =;o) Carolyn