"Dhawkslady" <dhawkslady@alltel.net> wrote to KEIM: > > How do you find information on what county and state your relatives > are from? I don't know how to get the information on where mine > were located! > Murna, I looked back over your postings and noticed you don't have the birthplace listed for your James Edward Keim, so I assume you're trying to find out where HE was born. There are a couple records that offer clues; have you looked for James's death certificate? You state James died in 1901; many States were filing death certificates by 1900. James's death certificate MAY tell exactly WHERE he was born, and frequently listed on a death certificate will be the names of the deceased's parents. Most states included that information, but the person furnishing the information had to know the answers! If James's parents ARE listed, you have his father and a location where James was born. If their names were NOT listed, you hopefully have a location where James was born and could start looking at censuses to take your line back in time. Since your James was born in 1849, he should be listed on an 1850 census SOMEWHERE, hopefully with his parents! You may have to look at several 1850 census records before you find him, but with the information from his death certificate, your search should be narrowed to a specific locality. WHAT IF THERE IS NO DEATH CERTIFICATE? Following is one example of how we determined WHERE to look for one ancestor who died before death certificates were filed. We had three different sources for our ancestor's birthplace: family hearsay, an obituary, and a pioneer society application. Each told a different county in Indiana. We considered each, thinking about WHO provided the info. Family hearsay seemed a good source; these are ideas/stories passed down possibly from people who lived during the time the ancestor was alive. Obituaries are possible sources; they contain info from someone who usually was knew the deceased quite well. In our case, the pioneer society application was the source that provided the best information. This was the only document we had from a time BEFORE our ancestor died, in fact, this was an application our ancestor himself completed. These were HIS statements, most likely to be accurate. His information told us WHERE to look for his parents. Attempts should be made to find as many different sources as possible, then determine which will be most likely to provide accurate information.