At 08:08 PM 6/24/00 -0700, Gayle Cantrell wrote: [snip] >Until today, I had been unsuccessful in locating a copy of Sim's death >certificate. Both Sim's and Mary Etta's death certificates are inexplicably >missing from the Macon County Courthouse. The copy of Mary Etta's death >certificate I that I received today came from the Division of Archives and >History in Raleigh, but they couldn't locate Sim's. She died in 1941, and >he died in 1944. What gives? Is it even REMOTELY possible that Sim's death >was recorded in Swain County? Doubtful...? They're both buried in Macon >County... It's quite possible he never had one. Death certificates weren't *required* unless a doctor was in attendance -- and doctors cost *money*, especially for people out in the country. (Remember, this was well before Medicare, and health insurance was still a new thing, mostly available only in some cities.) So, it's quite possible Sim died in his sleep, or in other circumstances in which the family didn't see the need for a doctor. I caught onto this after searching the S.C. death certificate index and finding *much* fewer death certificates for the 1930s than for either the 1920s or 1940s. I asked my dad, who grew up in the '30s and '40s: he told me he didn't even know about death certificates until after he started medical school in 1953. In the case for which I was looking for a 1930s death certificate and didn't find it in the index, I was able to locate an obituary for the person in microfilm of the local newspaper. Elizabeth Whitaker ELWHITAKER@ftc-i.net in South Carolina