Franklin County, Pennsylvania's officials, including the county's archivist Stu Veinotte, say the county is better off without all the old papers that constitute more than 200 years of local history. Paper copies of old estate records, marriage licenses, tax and court records and book after book of deed records, some of which date to the late 1700s, will be gone, existing only in digital files and in some cases on microfilm.
Veinotte is managing a team that is digitizing the old records, many of which are stored in two rooms in the basement of the courthouse annex, converting them to digital format to be stored in the county's computer system and in some cases microfilming them. So far, he has overseen the digitization of boxes full of old records, and book after book of records from the 19th and 20th centuries, including notary records from the 1970s and 1980s, road notices from 1881, a list of jurors from 1876, as well as things like 20th century voter records and annual and triennial assessments for the county's townships and boroughs.
Veinotte is managing a team that is digitizing the old records, many of which are stored in two rooms in the basement of the courthouse annex, converting them to digital format to be stored in the county's computer system and in some cases microfilming them. So far, he has overseen the digitization of boxes full of old records, and book after book of records from the 19th and 20th centuries, including notary records from the 1970s and 1980s, road notices from 1881, a list of jurors from 1876, as well as things like 20th century voter records and annual and triennial assessments for the county's townships and boroughs.
Those early deeds as well as deeds for the next two centuries were put on microfilm at some point in the late 20th century, but Veinotte said those old microfilmed records are in poor condition and need to be replaced. Digital copies of the originals should last longer than today's worn-out microfilm copies.
The county plans to get rid of the originals, but that doesn't necessarily mean the records will be destroyed. The county has already given a large number of documents to the Franklin County Historical Society, including ledgers containing monthly expenditures for county offices, a 1916 account book of sheep and dog taxes, journals with accounts receivable for both the 19th and 20th centuries, a list of "taxable inhabitants" of Warren Township in 1870, and a 1902-05 record of fees from "pool, billiards and hucksters" licenses. More will be offered to the society as other documents are converted to electronic media.
You can read more in an article by Vicky Taylor in the PublicOpinion.com web site at http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_15783284
