The most likely suspect in the fire I mentioned was a local man who had a court case coming up about land. All the records of the land in question were apparently lost in the fire, to his benefit. The accusations was never proven for the land dispute, nor the fire. TW Scott -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Date: 04/16/2009 02:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [HESSE] Court house fires I have seen statements like this many times before, but no one has ever explained why so many court houses have been burned down. No one has even asked until I am doing so now. Are there some serial arsonists who concentrate on court houses? It doesn't seem likely that there would be so many such fires normally. Jayne [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) In a message dated 4/16/2009 11:24:43 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: On Thu, April 16, 2009 8:42 am, TW Scott wrote: > All, > My courthouse really did burn down, it was well documented. It was That was really my point. Many old courthouses were wood structures, There were LOTS of American courthouse fires, some completely burned down (repeatedly). However, often the clerks would have the records in their houses and when the courthouse burned down no records were lost or maybe only a few. What I'm trying to say is don't just take someone's statement that there are no records for county [fill in the blank] for [some date] because the courthouse burned down in [some other date]. I've researched in a county where the courthouse burned down three times, and only a very few records were lost. However, I've done other research, were records were kept and fires have nearly destroyed all records for a large timeframe. In American research you need to do your homework to know what really is lost, and not just because someone says so. Of course, generally many records can also be found in the local churches and when churches shutter, it's not unusual to have historical societies get those records. Local historical societies in America are a valuable source of information. I would not be surprised if there is a German equivalent to them? Brian ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message **************Great deals on Dell’s most popular laptops – Starting at $479 (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1220029082x1201385915/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B213969145%3B35701480%3Bh) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the messagePAIGN_‰ ------------------------------------------------------------ Bankruptcy Click here for free information on how to reduce your debt by filing for bankruptcy. http://tagline.excite.com/fc/FgElN1g1vaRiA7FBltD49J2CsetI0SRhPFmOboy7HxuexbDieVN9P0vtPSg/