More History Being Lost & One Solution

WTHR (Channel 13) Indianapolis ran a story tonight about how historic Shelby County (IN) records are being lost. (See the video, here. NOTE: I had to manipulate the link a little, because when I tried the full on, it gave me the "yellow bar" at the top of the browser, and immediately "turned it off", showing their home page. Even THIS link will give you the warning (but will stop, allowing you the CHANCE to allow popups. If you do not allow popups, it will tell you. Just temporarily allow them for this.)

The Shelbyville News carried the story, yesterday, apparently related to story on the building, "Shelby Manor" (aka the "County Home" - "For nearly 160 years, Shelby County's 'poor farm' or 'county asylum'") and its deteriorating condition. The roof has caved in in at least one spot, and water leaks from the roof to the ground floor in others.

County records are stored there, some in boxes, and many old ledger books, some dating to the 1800s, are simply stacked haphazardly, in various rooms, some covered with mold and mildew.

I'm absolutely positive that Shelby County is not the only local government (including various towns, cities, townships, etc.) or old business (funeral homes or cemeteries, included) with old records stored in extremely unstable environments. Simply keeping them in courthouses is no guarantee of protection. Look at all the historical records lost in New Orleans and in various other floods (think about all the records lost in the major flooding along the Mississippi a few years back) and fires. I already talked about one of the most recent in History, both Local and Family, lost (October 9, 2006 post).

Apparently, plans are being made to purchase a house near the courthouse annex, and move all the records there. However, there are boxes stacked floor-to-ceiling in offices in the basement of the annex. Sounds to me like nothing's organized, and it will take years to clean, restore, preserve, organize and store them correctly.

The problem is, government budgets for preservation and restoration of historic documents, buildings, etc. are continually being cut. The money is then used, sometimes for valid purposes, sometimes for "pork". Please note: I am not, in any way, saying that the latter is the problem in Shelbyville, I don't know. It's just that I've seen and heard about so many government agency budgets being cut, then heard about strange programs suddenly getting much more money than was originally budgetted.

"Ah... It's just old stuff... Who cares?" I expect to hear this from almost anyone under 20, but as you get older, you do start becoming interested in history. If you destroy it when you are young, you will NOT have it when you really want to look into it. And, even if YOU are not interested in it, there are millions of people who ARE. And there will be millions more people interested in the future. Those who make "fun" by going around, defacing and knocking down gravestones, are no better (and those who destroy records on purpose are no better than them.)

Besides, it's our state's (and with all combined, our country's) history. And, for the individuals, it's our FAMILY's history. It can be used to trace from where a family came, where they went, who married who, who divorced who, who was named in wills, who owned property, who went to jail for what, who died of what and when, names, dates, locations, jobs, etc. Demographics can be generated for each location for state historians and others, allowing for spotting of trends. (This type of statistic is how they figure out what item carries E-coli from an individual Taco-Bell... Everyone who got sick at SOMETHING that caused it...)

No... It's not the family stories every family has, but it's the proof that those stories are real.

What can be done? I guess it's time to share an idea I've had for the past few years, but not known of any way to implement it. Maybe some of these records can be saved for posterity.

A foundation or organization should be created (or a division of an existing one) that is fully-funded. If started by the government, no budget for it should ever be cut. Donations by organizations and individuals should be made possible. The idea is to make it self-sufficient. How? Read on.

Personally, I feel that these records MUST be digitized. While every library has a micro-fiche reader, many of these are very old, and I believe that optical devices should be used. (CDs, DVDs, even high-capacity hard-drives.)

There are book-cradle copiers/scanners, that will allow copying/scanning of the pages of the old books and ledgers without destroying the bindings. Recent loose documents should fit in a more normal scanner. A "mergable" text database, with the standard text being master field records and the written information (where the underlines show what needs entered) being detail record fields, needs to be created for each type of record. The images should then be linked to each detail record. These detail records may then be printed in reports using various appropriate sorts. All of this information can be stored on optical storage devices (CD/DVD/etc.) or removable hard-drives. Copies should be made, and sent to various libraries and historical museums, at least state-wide. As new records are created, they should be digitized in much the same way.

For even larger documents (plot maps, etc.), a large-format scanner should be employed. The scan could then be stored as a more "normal"-sized page, and/or "broken up" into smaller, more manageable pieces and stored. In these cases, the index numbers/letters on the maps, and the actual plot numbers (and associated names) could be put into a database. And plot books (when I sold insurance on a debit route, these were generated yearly, and banks, title offices, and county offices usually GAVE copies of them away... They're probably all sold, now...) should be digitized. (Old and current.)

Doing this could make all records (especially the text databases and low-resolution copies of the images) available on the internet. The individual optical records may also be sold by the libraries/museums, or even the governments or businesses themselves.

For privacy advocates, remember that all of these records that I'm talking about are "public record". Anyone could/should currently be able to go to the courthouse and look up the information there. Anything considered more sensitive (prosecution records - also stored at the Shelby Manor, and other such items) would be secured for the standard 70 or so years.

Something to think about: With online phone books, numerous public record search firms, etc., I don't know why the census records are so sensitive, except for showing family income, which could technically be blurred! Ancestry only shows indexes and images those from 1930 and before, though they have many states that allow marriage, birth and death records, to well-past 2000. And Social Security Death Indexes are pretty current.)

As for the books and actual records, once the data has been digitized? They should be donated to the state museum. A copy of (or master of) the digitized data should be, too. If they don't want them, a secure warehouse, centrally located to the state, should be built, climate controlled, fireproofed (no water sprinklers - halon or better), and guarded 24/7. This should be where all the archival data in the state should be organized and stored. Sensitive data should be locked in a special vault. With the digitized records as a "card index", the location of each item could be found. The building should be open daily, and historians, genealogists and even interested general public should be able to use the computer to view the records in which they are interested. If the books are in too bad shape for the public to handle, maybe a reference librarian or two should be on-duty, too. Since digital copies of the records have already been made, there should be no reason for anyone to actually have to read the books, unless the scans have had problems, and this should have been taken care of when they were scanned.

Maybe someone from government, or in a position of money or power. will actually read this blog post, and consider something like the above. Maybe someone from the History Channel's "Save Our History" will.

I hope so... We are losing our history at an alarming rate. It MUST be remembered that our history doesn't just mean buildings and monuments, though they are important, too. (Does everyone know that the Ambassador Hotel, where RFK (Bobby) was assassinated, was demolished?)

If you're interested in something like this, or have a better idea, let me know.

Bill Sanders