Dianne, Occasionally you'll get lucky and you will have an ancestor (or one of their siblings) live long enough to have an accessible death cert. Alabama's were supposed to be started state wide from about 1907 on and can be ordered from any Alabama health department (anyone remember the exact year they started?) These frequently have the parents on them, and it's sometimes surprising the people that DO have death cert. Another good source of course is estates. The Jeff Co. courthouse has TONS of estate records and occasionally gaurdianship records, though searching them can be tedious, but it can also be part of the fun! Of course it's much more fun for a surname like DeVore (my maiden) than like Williams (my genealogy nightmare -LOL!). Good luck. Nanc > > The Early's wrote: > > > > The trouble with censuses before 1850, is that they only list the name of > > the head of household. This has made it impossible (so far) for me to > > figure out who my great-great-grandfather's parents were. If I can't find > > a birth record, how can find his parents???? Suggestions, PLEASE! -- Dianne