Franklin County has agreed to embark on a major project to digitize 299 record books dating back to 1855.
The books are currently housed at the clerk of the court office at the Franklin County Courthouse.
Currently the county has digitized records going back to 1986 which can be seen at the Clerk of the Court website.
Anything before that has to be viewed in person at the Clerks office.
Once this program is complete, all record going back to 1855 will be available on the website and people will be able to search index books as well as view and purchase document records 24 hours a day from the comfort of their home or office.
That includes John Gorrie's original last will and testament and the inventory on his ice machine, which happens to be in the 1855 book.
Not only will the scanning make the records mare easily accessible, but it will also insure that the records are protected from fire, flood or other major disaster.
And many of the books in question are getting very old and beginning to fall apart.
Commissioner Jessica Ward pointed out that it will also make it much easier for people with mobility issues to access the records.
The scanning work will be done by a company called Kofile – they say it should take less than 6 months to complete the job.
The total cost of the project is 275 thousand dollars, but that can likely be covered by COVID Relief funds – the county should know by mid December whether that is the case.
The commission agreed to start the project by using about 82 thousand dollars in the counties CARES fund.
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