For some of the new listers, a note here about the vital statistics such as I am posting right now. >From 1852-1910, KY allowed and recorded the births and deaths (and marriages) in the existing counties. But the years covered were random. Many years were not recorded, and I have been told that the KY Legislature (and other states followed the same pattern) felt that there was no need to record all these. And, I imagine that some years have been lost. The information was recorded in the large ledger books at the County Clerk's office. These books do not exist in the various counties but have been microfilmed. Birth records normally showed the name of the child (if named yet), color, sex, status (living or dead), name of parents (or slave owner), place of birth of parents. Death records normally showed the name of the individual, place of birth, place of residence, place of death, cause of death if known, sometimes occupation, name of parents if known, their place of birth if known, cause of death and date of death. Were there errors in the records? Oh yes! The doctors or midwives were to keep track of all the births and deaths they had attended that year and return these records to the County Clerk's office yearly. They were written normally on little scraps of paper, some of which I've seen. The handwriting could be atrocious then as now. If the doctor did not keep good records, wrote poorly, or didn't even know the names of those he attended, names and facts could be incorrect. Thankfully most kept good records. In one case where I was transcribing, the doctor must not have dated the event and his report showed that everyone was born or died on the 1st or the 15th! At times the physcian/midwife was not in attendance at the death and took the family word as to the cause of death or even the date of death. It was not as scientific as it is today and several diseases had the same symptoms. During the cholera epidemic in Barren Co in 1854, most deaths were coded as cholera, but other doctor's showed it as dysentary, summer cholera or other diseases with the same symptoms. The vital statistics are a wonderful tool for the genealogist tho hard to read in many instances from the microfilm. The clerk had to interpret the doctor's handwriting and if he didn't know the family, he could make mistakes also. Then, 200 years later or so, we try to interpret the Clerk's writing ... a lot of chances for errors! One English born clerk in Barren Co showed all the James as Jeames, the Henry's as Henri's, the Smiths as Smythes, etc. Comments were also written in by the clerk on some entries which today are hysterical - normally regarding the births. They had no idea that we would be looking at their comments later. I hope this helps a tad. Each year was recorded separately, and names listed by the first initial of the last name. All the births are together, then the deaths, then the marriages. Normally the I's and J's were recorded together as they were written the same. Sometimes a name was put on the wrong page and you will find a Jones at the end of the S page, etc. Some microfilm is unreadable - dark. Sometimes the clerk got off a line in the ledger book and got the wrong person with the wrong parents. But the majority are as accurate as we can ascertain - looking at it many years later. See you all Monday - Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/