Happy New Year, all! In mid-November I offered to do lookups of coroners' reports until 31 December 2005. The results were quite encouraging. 35 requests were received, looking for 76 deaths, of which 20 coroners' reports were found. That's a 26.3% success rate, which for this type of death report is excellent. Therefore, I will extend my limited offer until 31 March 2006. Please read the entire offer below before asking for lookups, because the coroners reports only cover "unusual" deaths (see below), and they only cover the years 1905 to 1950. By the way, at least 15 other counties of New York State published "Board of Supervisors Proceedings", though they might have given them different names. If someone is willing to read them page by page they might possibly find coroners' reports in those publications. May you find many of those you seek in 2006! Marty Irons ---------- limited offer (expires 31 March 2006) --------------- From 1905 to 1950 (only) coroners in Orange County NY presented annual reports to the county Board of Supervisors of "unusual" deaths which they had investigated ...deaths like murder, suicide, drowning, hit by a train, kicked by a horse, etc...only cases where a doctor was not present to sign a death certificate. These were published in the "Board of Supervisors Report" for that year. They consist of just one paragraph, which tells who died, when, where and why (cause of death). A handful of them named other relatives. During this 46-year period 6,016 individual reports were published, covering 3,453 different surnames...far too many to post here. This is a valuable resource that was not noticed until a few years ago. They are not death certificates, and give limited information, but they help focus on date and place of death. A volunteer at Orange County Genealogical Society created an index of these reports. I have a copy of the index at home, and can quickly tell if any given name was included. From now until 31 March 2006 I will volunteer to check the index of coroners' reports found in the Orange County (NY) "Board of Supervisors Proceedings", and if the name requested is located, to quote the actual report on this list. Before you request a lookup, remember the parameters: 1. Must have died in Orange County NY. 2. Must have died between 1905 and 1950. 3. Must not have died in a hospital or in the presence of a doctor. 4. Send only name and (approximate) year of death...nothing else, as the index is by name and date of investigation. If found, the index will tell the year and page and I will look up the details (just one paragraph per death). Please, no long-winded explanations...just one line per death, and no "fishing parties" such as "any Smith between 1920 and 1930". If found in the index, I will post the coroner's report to the list. If not found in the index, I will tell you off-list, so as not to waste the time of hundreds of people on the list. So go ahead and send requests if you think someone may have died under unusual circumstances in Orange County NY between 1905 and 1950. I'll try my best for you...until 31 March 2006. Requests received after that date will not be answered. Marty Irons k2mi@frontiernet.net All e-mail scanned by Norton 2005 anti-virus, updated online daily. May all your ancestors YELL at you, telling you how and where to find them. PS: great great grandfather John F IRONS.... b. 1811 "somewhere"....possibly Otsego County NY.... m. 1834 Hartwick, Otsego, NY d. 1854 Cazenovia, Madison, NY.... please stand up on that brick wall and yell out the names I've sought for 12 years....LOUDER! Who were your parents? Were they from RI? Where were you born? Was it Otsego County NY? Did you have a brother named Orlando? Who were your other siblings?