Hazel Stabler wrote: > > Does anyone know if births were announced in newspapers as far back as 1831? > My ggrandfather, William Woodward, was born in Watertown and I have been > informed that there are no official birth records before 1880. Just got to > wondering about the newspaper. I'm trying to find out who his parents were > and where they were from. I don't know for sure, but I rather doubt it. Little has survived from that era. An obit for an important man or a long lived woman would be more likely to be included. Nan Dixon -- http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyjeffer/