When I looked at my first courthouse index, shock and confusion are my strongest memories.  How was I suppose to find a person hopefully listed in this index if I could not even figure out how to use the index.

Indexes are suppose to be straight forward.  Sure you might have to look for alternative words to find what you are looking for, but in most cases, you go in alphabetical order.  Not so in some courthouse indexes.  The cryptic method of finding a person can make for what started as a nice genealogical research day into a nightmare.

Come forward in time, finding Courthouse Indexes Illustrated by Christine Rose, and reading how to navigate these indexes has made courthouse research so much easier.  Knowing that not all courthouse follow the same system, understanding that indexers may have recorded the entry you seek in a different order than what you had assumed, and accepting that not all indexes survive, has made for more productive courthouse research trips.