[Genealib] Need help for patron

[T D]

Hi all.

We have a mentally-disabled patron who has been calling us for years asking questions about his ancestors (grand-parents and great-grandparents and their siblings, mostly). Because of his disability, he gets his facts confused sometimes, and can't always give us the type of coherent dialog necessary to find out enough information to help him with his search, but it is obviously important to him to know more about his family. 

Unfortunately, our patron has no other close relatives who could clarify for us the information he is unable to give himself. What information he has was told to him by his father, who has since passed away.

Occasionally, he'll have a slightly more "lucid" moment where he manages to convey enough information all-together about one person that we might have a shot at helping him.

Unfortunately, because of his disability, the patron is not capable of pursing research on his own, nor does he understand the complexity and necessity of locating records in order to find and confirm the information he seeks.

I would desperately like to put together a basic genealogy on this man's father's family for him (again, just back to his great-grandparents), but I need help.

I'm writing the list today to see if there might be librarians here with access to records for the following dates and areas:

-An index for Kansas City, Missouri deaths around 1980
-Little Rock and Pine Bluff, Arkansas and/or Lincoln and Desha Counties, Arkansas (early 1900s to present).

The patron's family is proving elusive in the census (although we did locate his father as a young child in the 1920 census), but the relationships given in that record are not clear, and the names the patron has given us don't match up, exactly, which makes it hard to go farther. I need help clarifying these family relationships, perhaps via obituaries.

If anyone feels they might be able to help with this research, please e-mail me off list. I would appreciate any help or suggestions anyone can give.

Sincerely,
Teresa Dahlgren
Genealogy & Reference Librarian
Waterloo Public Library
Waterloo, Iowa