The clerk did not give you good information . Very few things are missing from the two fires that have happened. The only things I have run on that are missing are some of the court records for the criminal courts and a few of the other lower court books. All the deeds , wills even the insanity cases are there in the courthouse. The original tables and the cases that hold the wills are untouched. All the deed records are intact. They also have plats etc. You can check here to see the scope of deeds' wills marriages etc. and the Birth records and death records go back to 1903. http://32.96.111.13/Eng/Library/fhlc/supermainframeset.asp?display=localitydetails&subject=193503&subject_disp=Texas,_Grayson&columns=*,180,0 The newspapers go to 1879 at the library and before that you use the Texas newspaper project: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/refserv/per_micro/cah/ Or the Clarksville and Paris newspapers as well as sometimes the Dallas paper. susan in Texas Beverly Brown wrote: > > I went to Grayson County last week for the first time, and the clerk in the > office where the births, deaths and marriage records were kept told me that > the courthouse burned in 1909 and so records earlier than that weren't > available. I certainly didn't find any birth or death records earlier than > that, but I did find marriage and probate records for much earlier than that. > > Did only part of the courthouse burn? Or were those records that survived > the fire not in the courthouse? I certainly don't mean to imply that the > clerk gave me bad information, but since there clearly ARE records going > back to before 1909, is it possible that there are also birth and death > records from before 1909, but they're in another location? > > Since I wasn't able to find the death record I was looking for (from about > 1878), I went to the library to see if I could find an obituary, but their > microfilms of newspaper records only went back to the mid 1880s. Is there > another source for earlier newspaper records? > > I plan to make another trip to Sherman in the next couple of months, so I'd > appreciate any tips anyone could give me. > > Thanks. > > Beverly Brown > [email protected] > > B.r.a.c.k.e.t.t B.r.o.w.n B.r.u.n.e.r B.u.r.k.s C.h.r.i.s.t.i.a.n > H.a.r.r.i.s J.o.y.c.e P.h.i.l.l.i.p.s R.o.s.e S.i.s.s.o.n S.n.e.a.d > S.w.o.p.e T.h.o.m.p.s.o.n T.i.l.l.m.a.n T.y.l.e.r W.e.s.t > W.h.i.t.f.i.e.l.d Y.a.t.e.s > > ==== TXGRAYSO Mailing List ==== > --- Author Retains Copyright --- > -- Copyright 2000 Author -- All Rights Reserved > Post to List: [email protected] http://www.selfroots.com > Unsubscribe Request: [email protected]