THREE NEW INTERNET SITES OF INTEREST: MEXICAN WAR SERVICE -- U.S. OFFICERS DATABASE ; SCOTLAND. Links to sites that offer free Scottish genealogy lookups ; and TEXAS BIRTH AND DEATH INDEXES. Birth indexes (1926-1995) and death indexes (1964-1998) are available (free) on the Internet.
Finding Dates of Death: There will never be a death certificate before the recordation of vital statistics was mandated in each state. Don't give up. Family Bibles; estate records (including records of probates, Guardian, Conservators and Executor/Administrators and wills); Civil Court litigation records, such as contested wills, suits on life insurance policies, and widow's disents, etc; deeds, church records, cemetery records, county and family histories, census records; tax records (the year the taxpayer drops off the tax rolls); mortality schedules; and military records, including pension files, are some of the records that may yield a date of death.
REMEMBER 8870. That's not an error: It's the number to remember when you want to find the birthdate of someone when you only have the date of death and age. How do you figure the birthdate? Suppose the person died May 6, 1889, at the age of 71 years, 7 months, 9 days.
****Write the year, month, day as:->18890506
****Subtract the age at death:------->710709
****This gives the figure:--------->18179797
****Now subtract 8870:----------------->8870
****The result is:----------------->18170927
Year 1817, 9th month (Sept), 27th day or 27 Sept, 1817
(Courtesty Platte Co, MO Historical/Genealogical Society & TXSSAR Treasurer, Cliff Slagle).
NEW TEXAS DATABASES AT ROOTSWEB. Four new free and fully searchable databases were added to RootsWeb in May:
TEXAS BIRTH RECORDS (1926-1949) has 3,211,268 records with 164,733 surnames. This set has more information, including the parents' names.
TEXAS BIRTH SUMMARY RECORDS (1950-1995) has 11,974,269 records with 308,979 surnames.
TEXAS MARRIAGE RECORDS (1966-1995) contains 5,269,009 records - http://userdb.rootsweb.com/tx/marriage/search.cgi
TEXAS DIVORCE RECORDS (1968-1997) contains 2,543,376 divorce records.
S.A.R. Supplementals. If you haven't taken a look at the new 1999 SAR Patriot Index CD, you may be missing a Supplemental. It contains an additional 140,000 names for a total of 610,000 patriots and their families. Compatriots are encouraged to obtain as many supplemental memberships as possible, as it will help future generations become members. It will also be a matter of pride for your descendants. [Note: This cd is available from Progeny Software]