I agree with Judy. What usually is the first records to be retrieved are the index books. These at least show the veracity of a claim that a record was officially filed. Other records that might be save were those taken out for binding/re-binding, checked out for review or at least, if they were kept in a vault, then those records would have been saved. The big problem are those buildings caught up a flood. That is what destroys a lot of records. But I agree, check out the statements. Check the calendars of documents and see what is filed. In the case of Wisconsin records, many courthouses have shipped off their older records to storage at the local University of Wisconsin branch and in Oregon they are at Salem. This prevents some losses. In the case of the USA, there is sometimes the many levels of bureaucracy. Ever wonder what is done with the forms you fill out in triplicate? In older times, courts were required to summarize records filed to upper levels. In Wisconsin, the birth records were copied to the state level, but many kept their original books of births (eg. Barron county has the births books going waay back and contain entries not at the state level). You will have to be creative to find these duplicates and secondary archive locations, but keep the faith! Slan Leat! Phil McManus manus@aol.com (Manus)