Well, seems to me like you almost answered part of your own question. There is no place to "write" for the death record that never existed. But, there, indeed, are other avenues for you. There are newspapers. There are graveyards and records of graveyards. There are mortuary records. There are wills and estate administrations. There are county histories. In short, there are several possibilities to establish death dates before the keeping of official records. Once you get back beyond the 1870s you will need to be enterprising because such things as death records just do not exist. I hope this helps a bit. Louie -----Original Message----- From: snowbird [SMTP:snowbird@sugar-river.net] Sent: Monday, April 12, 1999 12:53 PM To: INADAMS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [INADAMS-L] Some Adams Co. Research Question Hi Rooters, I'm one of these unhappy people who just seems unable to make any progress on my research.....or at least not enough to notice. So here's a question. How does one go about finding a death record when the death probably occurred before the state required all deaths to be recorded? And, in the unlikely event the death actually was recorded, how does one find out about it when one does not know when that death occurred. I mean, I can't write to the.....what is it?.......Health Department?......and ask them to research all of their records between 1891 and 1908. Any hints on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.