Thanks, Betty. I was really hoping that Clay Co. had some county level death records for 1898. Guess not. Thanks for the news about which years they do have scattered records for. I can stop hoping then. ;o) I have about 3 or 400 KY death certs on Cassy Sommers' web site. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~foe3643/ I may have to see if I can find an obit for her in the newspapers. http://www.kygenweb.net/ukfilm/index.html But, back in those days they didn't usually say a whole lot about "daughter of so and so." Oh no, I guess that's out of the question too. I don't see any papers for Manchester until 1958. Shoot. Does anyone have any ideas on what sort of churches were around Manchester or Plank? That might be my only hope at this point. Kathy in MN Betty Eddy wrote: > Kathy, > > I don't believe there are any public death records for this period. > Kentucky as a state did not start keeping such records until 1911. Prior to > that time there were random efforts to have births and deaths recorded at > the county level. There exists some death records for Clay for 1852, 1853, > 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1874, 1876, 1878, 1904. There is > also a Federal Mortality Census, associated with some of the older Federal > Census, for those people who died in the 12 months period prior to the > taking of the Federal Census. > > Betty >