Treasure Trove

Lisa has told me many times that in the genealogy ‘business,’ you’re never really done.

When you think that you have found all the information a particular source has to offer, then, another source becomes available. And, in the digital age, that seems to happen all the time; nearly every day.

Last week, she ran across a fascinating website from the Shelby County Register of Deeds. Staff members have uploaded a treasure trove of information to this site. I wondered if the files were put together thanks to economic stimulus money or some other additional funding source because it would have been a somewhat labor intensive task to complete.

In any case, thanks to all those folks, employed by the Shelby County Register of Deeds, who spent a number of hours scanning documents and making them available to everyone online. If you are a Memphian or if you have Shelby County roots, you might find it interesting to visit the site and look up some record of note.

The website I’m describing - http://register.shelby.tn.us/ - features documents such as marriage licenses, death certificates and property deeds and such. For example, I ran across one file where my grandfather submitted a form to ask that his farm be classified as agricultural land.

It was a real treat to see the document written in his distinctive script.

Speaking of my grandfather, we also located the marriage license when he and my grandmother were wed. And I ran across similar files for some of my uncles and aunts and even my folks.

The website also features links to death certificates. I found documents for my great grandfather and great grandmother (my grandfather’s parents) as well as the son of my other West TN great grandfather.

It’s a shame that some of the smaller counties don’t have similar resources but I predict they will have that capability one day in the near future as more and more items become available digitally.

What an amazing resource!

Can you put yourself in the shoes of, say, my grandparents. It’s the 1920s. You’re starting to fill out the form to obtain your wedding license. In your wildest imagination could you believe that off in the future, less than 100 years away, that someone would posses a device that would allow your future grandson to view (and print) a photocopy of that document while sitting in the comfort of their own home (some 400 miles away)?

Meanwhile, census takers in the early part of the 1900s (and late 1800s) compiled their records, by hand, on ruled sheets.  Some had better penmanship than others.

Could they – or the citizens they visited – believe a mechanism would be available in the early 21st century that would allow their descendants to search those files electronically? 

It’s really all amazing. And these technological advances have given inquiring folks like myself the opportunity to have access to these priceless nuggets of family history.

Maybe, a form of time travel is possible after all.

JG

Originally posted 1/28/2015