Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Historian Report topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Livingston County historian highlights newspaper digitization, cemetery kiosks and expanded online records
Summary
Howard Watson, Livingston County historian, told the Board of Supervisors that the historian's office completed a Rochester Regional Library Council grant to digitize more than 75,000 newspaper pages and installed interpretive kiosks at two poorhouse cemeteries.
Howard Watson, Livingston County historian, told the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 22 that the historian's office completed several projects in the past year, including a newspaper digitization project funded by a $6,500 grant from the Rochester Regional Library Council.
Watson said the project digitized more than 75,000 newspaper pages spanning roughly 1801 through 1924 across about 63 titles and that the material has been added to the New York State Historic Newspapers search site. He said the county's holdings are now available on two free public sites to aid researchers.
The historian also described installation of interpretive kiosks at two poorhouse cemetery sites—one on Volunteer Road and one behind Millennium Drive—and noted that Central Services and the highway sign shop constructed and installed the panels and a bench at the Millennium Drive site. Watson said Central Services staff also began resetting headstones to prevent tipping and that work would continue in the spring.
Watson said the office collected roughly 370 items, including photographs and short videos, documenting county events around the April eclipse and that online research requests remained steady at about 365 for the year. He reported adding almost 30,000 entries to the office's online records index, an increase of about 80% over the previous year, and noted that in-person research requests remain low while online use is increasing.
Looking ahead, Watson said the historian's office plans further newspaper digitization targeting twentieth-century titles from Geneseo, Mount Morris, Dansville and Avon and that staff are considering use of remaining ARPA funds to support that work. He also said Amy Alden, a former county historian, is nearing completion of a Murray Hill history book the office hopes to publish this year.
During the presentation a supervisor asked about the presence and marking of headstones at the old poorhouse cemeteries; Watson said roughly half of the oldest burials have numbered markers that the office has matched to names in a historical register and that two-thirds of graves in the newer cemetery have headstones with initials.
