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County staff traces land records from 1857 deed books to 82% e-recording
Summary
County staff presented a history of local land records stewardship, saying the office has digitized most holdings, uses an offsite vendor (Bastion) for backups and has removed social security numbers from online records; staff flagged gaps in older microfilm and ongoing digitization needs.
Heather, a county staff member who presented the office's written report, told the committee the county's earliest deed on file dates to 1857 and described how records moved from handwritten deed books to typewritten volumes, photocopying, microfilm and today's electronic submissions.
"It all started with these heavy volumes," Heather said, showing several bound books and a 1934 original deed she said had been found and recorded. She said some deed volumes have been restored and many records have been digitized through successive imaging projects.
Heather said the office began electronic recording in 2015 and that, in 2025, 82% of documents were submitted electronically. She showed a screenshot of the county's recording software and explained that title companies and lenders connect to an offsite vendor-hosted server (Bastion) rather than the county's internal servers to retrieve images. "We use a vendor hosted offsite server system," she said, adding there is a secondary backup location.
Committee members asked whether the office retains original documents. Heather said originals are returned to submitters after recording; the office retains a recorded copy and a digitized image. She said paper copies remain in the office where available, but the county increasingly relies on electronic storage.
Heather told the committee that historical losses have occurred: early deed volumes were lost when the courthouse at Dunbell/Dunville burned, and some imaging projects produced incomplete scans (she cited finding half of deed volume 72 missing). She said the county asks vendors to re-scan missing pages when gaps are discovered.
The presentation also covered privacy work. Heather said social security numbers that appeared on some older documents were removed from records made available online after 2001. "Our software vendor helped us create looking for that number sequence to help us redact those social security numbers," she said, and noted recording fees and state funding helped support redaction efforts.
The staff presentation included discussion of indexes and access: name-index searches are available back to 1971 and legal-description searches to about 2000; grantor/grantee indexes still need additional digitization and the office is exploring land information modernization funds to finish the work.
The committee did not take formal action on the staff presentation. Heather invited members and the public to visit the office to see the materials and learn more.
