Duplicate Email Address problem

Duplicate Email Address problem

Hello,
  We have the "NO DUPLICATE" email address option checked.  Recently we attempted to convert a lead to a contact and opportunity and got the error that it couldn't convert due to duplicate email.  We have searched the contact database and opportunity database and this email address does not show in the system anywhere.  Anyone have any ideas?  For now, we just deleted the email address and converted with a contact without an email address and are moving forward from there