"Austin W. Spencer" <AustinWSpencer@sdc.cox.net> wrote: > Try narrowing the dates first. Directories and local newspaper > items may help with this. If successful, you may then have a window > much smaller than 20 years to give to the county clerk. If you are > really lucky, there will be obituaries and you can give the clerk > exact dates after all, if official death records are what you want. Austin: Several days ago I sent this email to the original poster: --- copy --- Frank, the estate records in most counties are fully indexed, so "after 1880 and before 1900" should be sufficient for them to locate a possible estate record. Also inquire to see if they have one for the wife. ----- end copy ----- There's always a first time, I guess, but I have never encountered a county in the U.S. that didn't have an index of the probate-estates file. The only time you would need to be closer than 10 years either way of, say, 1890, would be if the person's name is Joseph Smith or some such - and even then you would likely only have a couple. I would at least check for the estate record before embarking on a quest to pore through 20 years of newspapers looking for an obit or news item. If it turns out that you do need a more precise date (and I would be greatly surprised if you did) or there is no estate record (not unusual if there was no real estate) then the next stop is to check the local library to see if it has a collection of obits or death notices. A great many of them do. There is also the chance that death records were kept in the county, even though not required on a state-wide basis until after 1900 in most states). You can usually find out what records are available in a county by checking the county GenWeb site. Two I checked yesterday had the index to estate records for the entire 1800-early 1900 period. I say go for the probate record first and if that fails, then go the more complicated path. Regards, Richard "Richard A. Pence" <richardpence@pipeline.com>