One of the lists had interesting tips for using courthouses. Dress like a lawyer rather than a genealogist whose next stop is a back country cemetery. They'll often respond much more positively to requests. Don't head directly to the marriage records or other obviously "genealogy" records. Spend some time weeding through land records first, then go into probates & vital records. Actually, one other thing to consider, many of the courthouse records have been microfilmed by LDS and are available for a small fee at the local family history centers. It's often cheaper to rent the film & less dusty. Don't forget to write down where you found each piece of data you record. Date, time, place, book, page, whose jurisdiction (clerk of probate court, clerk of circuit court, clerk of vital statistics, etc.) Karen