This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/JiB.2ACE/688.1.1.1 Message Board Post: I don't know about the courthouse, but vital records weren't consistantly kept in Texas until after 1903, about 1914 I believe (even though it was supposed to be official in 1903). I have my grandfather's birth certificate from 1910, but I can't find a death certificate for my g-g-grandfather who died in 1912. I believe one g-g-g-grandfather, Andrew Long, died in Grimes Co., on 28 May 1885 but I believe there's little hope of finding much more than that.