"I only had the name of a town. I needed to find a road atlas. Perhaps the one in the family car would do? I went to the index in the back and found the town I was seeking. I wrote down the numbers beside the town's name, as they correspond to a location on the state map in the atlas (these are called coordinates)." "Then I went to the state map in the atlas. I found the coordinates and located the town I needed. Then I searched for the county boundaries. The name of the county was printed in larger type face across that area. I wrote it down. I now knew the name of the county in which current records are kept."