Debby, There were 81 grandchildren and my grandmother died near Afton in 1925 and one of my cousins got her old doctor's book. To give you an idea of the informality of birth records in the early 1900s, my grandmother would keep "births" like in a format that reminded me of how we might keep scores of "domino games" today. About once a month or every six weeks, she might travel to Dickens and record the births. This was recorded on a large sheet of paper that would be lined with rows and columns. She might have delivered six or eight children during this period and she would write down the parents, the date, maybe the community, and if it was a boy or girl or if there were twins. This would have been during the 1910s or so when she was in her 60s. She might miss the date by a few or several days, too. For example, she might have travelled from home for several days spending the night with "blue babys" or what have you.....and I gather these birth records would have all the degree of accuracy that a truck driver's expense account and log book would have today. In other words, paper work was considered a triviality in that the health of the patients came first and the "birth log" would often be from "memory" weeks after the fact. I know of at least one occasion where the "birth log" listed the wrong gender of the baby. Death records in the rural area might be the in the same manner but up from 1903 until 1927 when the state took the responsibility from local counties, probably only 65 to 75% of the births were recorded in the best of years. Death records were not automatic as they are today. Bill McCarty Odessa, Texas http://members.tripod.com/cindyradway/Erath/erath.html http://members.aol.com/texastag/mccarty.html