Liz, Dorris, Sandy, Michael & Others: Thank you all for helping the rest of us begin to understand the records picture for Wayne County! Thank you also for your efforts to build a cache of accessible records for posterity. Liz, your post was particularly heartening. When I first found my connections to the area about a year or more ago, I soon after read on the Wayne County USGenWeb site of the courthouse fire and thought I'd hit a brick wall or dead end, deeming it likely I'd have to make educated guesses and assumptions (not good for a genealogist), to track my folks earlier to KY and SC, and leaving a big gap in documented proof of the historical picture. Boy did my heart sink, as I'm sure it does for everyone who reads of the fire. Now if I could only get *to* Wayne County! <G> If can help future researchers in any way, I'm eager to do so, be it transcriptions, proofreading or lending busy fingers to data entry, scanning (OCR), or providing web space and page building to present data, and any other ways in which I'm able. It looks like Wayne County can use many folks applying the skills of creative ferreting to cull and preserve all the supporting historical data we can acquire. I'm so glad you're all here on the list. My appreciation and admiration goes to anyone who helps maintain a continuity to the Wayne County History. Smiles, Di, AKA Kin (since our listmom is Dianna--no confusion) [email protected] yahoo. com --- In a message dated 1/21/02 1:01:35 AM, [email protected] writes: << From: [email protected] ....<snip>.... 17 Nov. 1886. I think that there is one index to some deeds prior to that date. ....<snip>.... Also, even though the court house burned, files were saved, but it is my understanding that there is no index to these. ....<snip>.... __________________________ From: Sandy Bauer <[email protected]> There are books published on the cemeteries of Wayne County, ....<snip>.... I plan on going back again this year for a whole week and will try and take photos of all the gravestones in Thomason (near Wayne City) Farnsworth (Mt. Zion) Cemetery and also the Salem (Davis-Mateer) (near Keenes) cemeteries where I have lots of relatives. ....<snip>.... ______________________________ From: Liz Cameron <[email protected]> ....<snip>.... The courthouse employees were very helpful. Some of this information is not even listed in lists of courthouse holdings. I thought I had searched everything pre-fire that I could get my hands on, but here is what I found: There is a Circuit Court Index Book 1, from 1800-1880 and the court record packets. The earliest ones are singed and in very poor condition. They need to be microfilmed or preserved in some way soon! But I was able to look through them for whomever. There is also a Book 2 which indexes from 1880-1916 and corresponding records.There is a Will Index from 1861-1950. ....<snip>.... I found a Grantor Index book for land records for 1851-1858. Only the grantors (sellers) are indexed. The index book lists almost everything except money paid and other details that don't fit the columns, so it is almost as good as the deeds themselves. Also, look at the later deeds. ....<snip>.... The husband's deed was dated 1867 but filed in 1909 when he died. A deed for his wife was filed on the page before. It was dated 1858!!! ....<snip>.... The grantor index book may hold the key to the wife's purchase of land as she had been previously married and her first husband died before 1857 but I need to search the grantees--unindexed. ....<snip>.... I only had 3 days in the Wayne County area and lots of places to visit and search so I did not acquaint myself with every record available in the courthouse, but I was surprised by the amount of early records. ...<snip>.... >> In a message dated 1/22/02 2:03:29 AM, [email protected] writes: << From: [email protected] The records that exist are in the office of the circuit clerk. ....<snip>.... The books that would indicate the location of any certain records were lost in the fire. I do not think that any deed or land records are in those files. It appears to me that it would take unlimited time to locate anything. ....<snip>.... Indexing the contents would be a wonderful project for some organization. ....<snip>..... I would suggest that any one wanting land information buy the latest edition of the plat maps (I do not know where they can be purchased) and see who owns the land today. That person may have an abstract for the land. ....<snip>.... A local abstract office might have information. I assume that there would be a fee. May I also say that I consider the records after the fire to be in excellent order and condition. ....<snip>.... >> In a message dated 1/23/02 7:01:40 AM, [email protected] writes: << From: "Michael Clemmons" <[email protected]> I have started to place cemeteries on line at my family web site. Only have one so far, Barnhill Cemetery. I have a couple of more plots to add and ....<snip>.... http://family.clemmonsconsulting.com From: "Michael Clemmons" ....<snip>.... One of the reasons that I wanted to use a database is to make queries easier. I wanted people to be able (at some point) to be able to enter in a year and have it return all the people who died with that year. This could also be done with the year that they were born. I wanted to make searching easy but powerful for the user. ....<snip>.... >>