David/GentlePeople, > Working with Lee on her 1971 to 1974 death records, I came across a problem. > The 1972 files I pulled down are about 10 meg in size. All the others I've > pulled down are about 16 to 18 meg in size What I found out on this 1972 "General Index" is that for whatever reason, they only included the fields as represented in the Summary Indexes instead of the General Indexes fields. All the death records appear to be there. This is probably fine given that the 1969 and 1970 death records I just finished did not have any data in the omitted columns anyway. Field contents (field length in characters): SUMMARY INDEXES 1976 - 1999 GENERAL INDEXES 1964 - 1975 Last Name (21) Last Name (21) First Name (16) First Name (16) Middle Name (16) Middle Name (16) Suffix (4) Suffix (4) Death Date(yyyymmdd) (8) Death Date(yyyymmdd) (8) County in which death occurred (20) County in which death occurred (20) Gender (M or F) (1) Gender (M or F) (1) Social Security Number (9) Marital Status (14) Spouse's Last Name (21) Spouse's First Name (16) Spouse's Middle Name (16) Spouse's Suffix (4) TTFN, Chuck Mahaffey -----Original Message----- From: David W. Morgan [mailto:dmorgan@efn.org] Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2001 6:38 PM To: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: [TXARCHIVE] Please welcome new archivist! On Tue, 21 Aug 2001, Chuck Mahaffey wrote: > Thanks David. I'll put the emails together accordingly and get them up to > this group. I just finished ftp'ing the 1970 Death records for all the > counties, I'll send them up in a separate email. > > Working with Lee on her 1971 to 1974 death records, I came across a problem. > The 1972 files I pulled down are about 10 meg in size. All the others I've > pulled down are about 16 to 18 meg in size. I have not had a chance to look > at the contents yet, but what problems will this raise for us, and should I > run with what we got or let someone know of the discrepancy? I don't have an answer for that, unless fewer people died in 1972. You can check your records against the Rootsweb database, which used the same state records. http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/bvs/registra/INDEX.HTM http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/birth/general/search.cgi Texas births - 1926-1949 http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/birth/summary/search.cgi Texas birth summaries - 1950-1998 (parents are not named) http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/death/search.cgi Texas deaths - 1964-1998 http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/marriage/search.cgi Texas marriages - 1966-1997 http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/divorce/search.cgi Texas divorces - 1968-1997 > Dave, With the complexity of this project, don't sweat the lack of details > in the instructions. I'm just glad there are folk like you and the others > out there !!! :-) > > TTFN, > > Chuck Mahaffey > Glad you are here! David dmorgan@efn.org David W. Morgan Honolulu Hawaii http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dmorgan/ http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/tx/txfiles.htm ==== TXARCHIVE Mailing List ==== 300 MB as of Sept 1, 2000, 408 MB as of Oct 20, 2001, 500 MB as of Jan 17, 2001, 600 MB as of Feb 28, 2001, 713 MB as of May 21, 2001, 801 MB as of Jun 25, 2001.