Mark,

<< Ensured cas-ins set to false on all indexes.
 Changed where clause to Upper(surname) = Upper('SMITH') >>

Actually, you don't need the UPPER() function around both sides if the
available index is case-sensitive:

surname = 'SMITH'

My comment was meant to let you know that if you *did* have a
case-insensitive index, then you would need to use the UPPER() function
around both sides in order to ensure that it is optimized.

Also, in case you didn't know, you can set the TDBISAMQuery.GeneratePlan
property to True in order to have DBISAM populate the TDBISAMQuery.Plan
property when you execute the query.  It will show you whether the query's
WHERE clause is optimized or not.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com