Sure, I just did a search where the address given was the mailing address taken off of a tax assessment sheet.  The address was stated as 877 Ginhouse Road, Panola, AL.  Panola is in Sumter County, 877 Ginhouse Road is in Aliceville, AL which is in a completely different county.  The only way I was able to search the property was by searching forward from a deed that was named in the legal description I was sent. 

Let's forget the example cited in the original post a minute and discuss your post:

"If I can't easily get the parcel number, I have to give the Abstractor just the address to work from (and owner).... but it's ALWAYS the address being sold or re-fied."

I understand that sometimes that is all you have.  However, suppose the mortgage (if there is one) is granted to  a small bank that does not put addresses or parcel numbers on their mortgages, and the owner owns several parcels and receives their tax bill at a p.o. box?  Just what good does that address do me as an abstractor?  What I have to do is get the tax map out and look at every parcel that owner has and try to determine if the property is on that street, AND if it is on the portion of that street that matches the number.  Considering what we get paid in Alabama for a typical search, that goes above and beyond what should be expected.  Yet it is what I have to do all the time.  If I call and ask for a parcel number the order inevitiably gets put on hold for a week and nobody wants to pay mileage in those situations.  I work in 9 counties and only one has a database that includes physical addresses.  I've told all my customers that.  Yet when I get orders, all I get 90% of the time is a name and an address.  Gas is way too expensive to drive 50 miles, find nothing on the person or the address, and then be told "Its on hold, we'll let you know when we get  a parcel number."  I'm on the verge of insisting on a parcel number before I accept an order.