Beverly, Look at the page containing births to 1891 in Grant County, from David Taft / GCGS's donation to the USGenWeb Archives, here: ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wi/grant/vitals/births/to1891/birthil.txt There is an Emil JULIUS, born 1887 in Lancaster. Might be your Adolph's sibling or cousin? There are very few birth record transcriptions from earlier than the 1880s and the earliest one on that particular page is 1871, another page 1866. I still don't recall reading a good explanation of how the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Health/Vital Statistics obtained the earliest records. Some states say their early records come only from county offices. Then, from whence did the county acquire their records? I have to approach this same issue myself, and think once I've figured out which LDS microfilms to view, if unsatisfactory results are found, will have to hunt down first the County records, then the Church records for both birth-baptism and marriage information on early Grant County ancestors. My guess at this point is that the later, if surviving and accessible, will be the best source. Good Hunting! Di Kindet-NOSPAM-@yahoo.com (minus the hyphens & NOSPAM) -- In a message dated 02/6/8 9:02:10 AM, WIGRANT-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: << From: Oldcherub@aol.com Subject: [WIGRANT] Re: Birth Record My grandfather Adolph JULIUS was born in Stitzer, Grant County on 1 Aug 1873. I am wondering if birth, marriage records were kept in those years. Any clue will help. Beverly >>