When you see a record set that names people in alphabetical order (such as a tax list or an early census record), remember that people do not live in alphabetical order. That ordering was done to facilitate finding names later, making certain someone was not overlooked, or because the clerk liked things in order <grin>. The thing to keep in mind is that such lists were usually copied from earlier ones that were not in alphabetical order. That copying, to put in alphabetical order, could have resulted in an error of transcription.
This is not the same as counties or jurisdictions that put marriage licenses or probate records in alphabetical order. There hopefully information is not being recopied when packets or files are re-ordered.
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