I'm not familiar with Texas records, so these are some general suggestions: "Herschell R. Spears" <hebe@peoplescom.net> wrote: > My Maternal Great Grandfather, James Henry Ray, was shot and killed > by a neighbor in Blossom, Lamar County, Texas sometime in the year > 1900. The name of the neighbor, according to family history, was > Gossett (probably John Gossett). The 1900 census would verify whether he had a neighbor of this or similar name. Once you've confirmed the name, you can consider tracing Gossett (or whoever), if you get stuck finding info on your g-grandfather. > The only newspaper in the county at that time was destroyed. The > local college has no information in their archives. A good source of newspaper information is the U.S. Newspaper Program http://www.neh.gov/projects/usnp.html The Texas portion was headquartered at U of T http://www.cah.utexas.edu/newspapers/tnp.html and includes information on almost 3,000 Texas newspapers. > James Henry was buried in the Red Oak Cemetery near Blossom, Texas, > with no headstone, therefore his date of death is only known as 1900. You should check for cemetery records if you haven't already. They'll often have burial dates and other information, even if there's no headstone. Tom "Tom Morris" <tmorris-NOSPAM@SPAMFREE.nh.ultranet.com>