Cape Co. seeking grant to digitize licenses from 1941

Cape Girardeau County commissioners approved Cape County recorder of deeds Drew Blattner's request to apply for a $15,000 grant Thursday to help digitize marital records from 1941.

According to Blattner, the records are important to people who were married in 1941, those needing to prove how their name changed from the one on their birth certificates and relatives who are interested in family history and genealogy.

"Especially since the implementation of Real ID, we have been inundated with requests for certified copies of marriage licenses," Blattner said. "If someone can't prove why their name is different from the one on their birth certificate, they aren't going to be able to get their Real ID and everyone seems to want to get that gold star on their drivers license so that they can fly."

The recorder of deeds office is working to digitize all records for ease of access and long-term preservation for future generations. According to Blattner, the "loose-leaf" marriage licenses and marriage license applications are some of the last records needing to be digitized.

"We have a volunteer who has started with the oldest records and is working forward as our office staff started working backwards, but it's too large of a task for us alone," Blattner said. "Every year I apply for a grant to help with the daunting task and last year's grant focused on this same series of records spanning from 1942 to 1967 but that was a much larger project and this year's grant funds are capped much lower."

The next year needing to be digitized working backward is 1941.

"The timeframe just before WWII and up through WWII saw a drastic increase in marriages to the point that there nearly ten times as many people getting married per year than there are today, and that many marriages generated a lot of paperwork," Blattner said.

The digital images of the paperwork will be hosted on the county's historical research website and preservation microfilm created will be stored in the Missouri State Archive's microfilm vault.

The application for the $15,000 grant is due on March 1, but Blattner has already submitted it.

"I had it ready and just needed to get the Commission's approval," Blattner said. "COVID has made some things easier such as the whole grant process and the acceptance of emailed applications."