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Do you have a lost relative, the facts of whose life are a puzzle in your genealogical search? Is Uncle Jerry's county of residence in Georgia a mystery to you? If these two questions resemble ones that you find yourself asking, then you may want to consider using queries to aid your research. In genealogy there is great value in being able to ask a pointed question that will produce the specific information you need.

The query writer will find that precise information, well-arranged, will draw attention, and is more likely to get proper results. Poorly worded or confused queries are valueless. Below are a few examples that will suggest ways to improve your queries.

Some queries give information without clarification: We want proof of the ancestry of Abbianna Brown of Marion County, Ind., who was born in 1855 in Charleston, S.C., and died in Muncie, Ind., in 1902. She first married William Brown, and then married Tyree Harris. Her obituary doesn't give any mention of whom her 11 children married. There is too little information here about Brown, whose ancestry is sought, and there is no indication that the rest of the query has anything thing do with the search.

A query recently published in a genealogical publication simply stated: I need my grandfather, who was a resident of South Carolina in his youth, and went West as a young man. Besides the fact that it was not the grandfather who was needed, but information about the grandfather, this query says too little. Had the writer known something about his grandfather's occupation, for instance, he might have said: My grandfather, whom I know only as Grandpa Masters, was a stevedore, possibly living near a port city or a large river in South Carolina just after the end of slavery. The query now has an approximate date and a name, as well as an occupation and a general location.

It often pays to consult a map or gazetteer when you are unsure of a place name. The use of city, county and state names clarifies location and adds to the preciseness of the query, rather than leaving a vague understanding. in short, do the homework that will fine-tune your query. One example might be to mention the city Hutchinson, in Reno County, Kan., rather than to say it was somewhere near Wichita, Kan. The reference librarian of the nearest library is always willing to assist the serious researcher.

Another query might read as follows: Seeking information on John Gladson Sr. and jr. Seeking information on the three daughters of Aaron Harrington whose names were Sarah, Rachael and Rhoda. This query gives no dates or geographical locations. Further, it shows no relationship between the Gladson men and the Harrington family. A response would be most unlikely. This query should be separated into two, and there should be dates and geographical locations listed. Don't expect the people who read such incomplete queries to be mind readers.

Perhaps there are times when so little information is known about a particular person that there is no hope of knowing what questions to ask. Keep looking, reading and discussing the problem with knowledgeable genealogists, and keep reading other people's queries. A suggestion may come to hand sooner than you think.

Ernestine G. Lucas, the queries editor for the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society's national office, is the author of From Paris to Springfield: The Slave Connection Basye-Basey (1984) and Wider Window to die Past: African-American History From a Family Perspective (1995).