Following is a teaser from an interesting article about an LDS couple working with historic records found in Tennessee county courthouses. According to the article in the February 8, 2009 Herald-Citizen, the repaired and sorted courthouse records will be first microfilmed and then digitized. Interesting…
PUTNAM COUNTY [Tennessee] — Charlie and Dixie Murray are getting a first-hand look at the history of
Putnam County as they help clean, repair and organize records from the county’s past. The two are volunteers with the Genealogical Society of Utah and have been working with counties across the state for two years to archive historical records.
…
They have worked in Cocke County, Greene County, White County and Cannon County before coming to Putnam County.
In Putnam County, the pair have been hard at work for the past two weeks with county archivist Glenn Jones, sorting through old records from Putnam County Chancery Court.
Jones said, “They are doing a great job and are handling the documents with extreme care. It’s a big job to take each record and clean it up and repair it and organize it.”
So far, 18 boxes have been brought to the archives office from the Justice Center. More than 30 boxes remain. Jones said it isn’t known how many more boxes of historic records are being stored in various county offices.
Each record is unfolded and cleaned, removing dirt or mold. If the paper is brittle and the document is tearing, it is repaired. It is then filed in acid-free folders. After that, the records will be indexed and put on microfilm, with the Tennessee Archives receiving a copy and a copy going to the county archives.
The Murrays said as part of the volunteer agreement, the records would also be digitized and placed on the Web site www.familysearch.org. There, the records will be available free of charge to those conducting research.
Read the full article by Heather Mullinix in the February 8, 2009 edition of the Herald-Citizen.
They’re being *microfilmed*? Why not directly digitize them?
Oxa,
Good Question…
That was my first thought, and the reason I included that portion of the article in my blog. The majority of FamilySearch worldwide projects are now being done digitally. Paul Nauta spoke to my Salt Lake Christmas Tour group in Salt Lake City last December, and he told us then that most work is now being done with digital cameras, with microfilming being phased out. The old microfilm cameras are being donated to third-world countries that have little or no equipment to preserve records.
The article states that microfilm copies will be given to the county and state. I have an idea that there may be contracts in place to that effect – thus the filming. It could also be that the Tennessee project just hasn’t been upgraded to digital cameras yet.