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McDowell register of deeds reports preservation of early county volumes, finds historic deeds including city boundary and slave records
Summary
Registrar Lydia described a preservation project for early county deed volumes funded with a matching grant and automation funds; staff located the original Marion boundary deed and several slave-deed records and plan further preservation and cataloging.
Lydia, McDowell County’s elected register of deeds, told the Board of Commissioners the office completed initial preservation work on the county’s earliest deed volumes and found historically significant records during the process.
She said the first three volumes were professionally restored with funding from a matching grant and the office’s automation fund. The office produced before-and-after examples for commissioners and brought the original Volume 1 for review in the meeting. Lydia said Volume 1 contains the 1843 deed that established the original boundaries of the city of Marion — “the deed for the city of Marion’s original boundaries dated May 17, 1843” — and that immediately after that deed the team located five slave deeds on page 39.
Lydia said the preservation work revealed additional volumes in need of care and that the office plans a review with volunteers and interns to identify the most vital remaining records. She said the office hopes to preserve an additional three to four volumes over the next year. Lydia also listed recent technology and records upgrades the office completed since 2020, including server replacement, cloud backups, updated workstation hardware and secure credit-card chip readers.
Ending: Lydia asked for continued partnership between the register’s office and county administration on preservation work and said the archive project will continue to identify and preserve historically vital materials.
