Birth and death records prior to 1900 in Mineral and Hampshire in a great deal of cases were not reported or recorded. Many of those that were, were delayed or not accurate. The old hand recorded book that was at the Mineral Co. court house was recopied some years ago. The orginal was sent to Charleston, so I was told at one time. There were several mistakes made in the new one in transcribing it. Many times the person reporting the birth or death was recorded as the parents. Dates were copied wrong etc. Anyone who has been at this family history hobby for along while will tell you of the problems with recopying of records and the number of mistakes that are made. It was not much of a concern of most folks before the 1900s as to whether these things were recorded or not. Those that were, had family bibles. Ron