County archives under budget on digitizing records

It is not every day the Cape Girardeau County Commission hears a project it authorized has come in under budget.

Marybeth Niederkorn, director of Cape Girardeau County Archive Center, reported Monday a planned $35,000 program to digitize more than 200 years of county records has come in approximately $4,500, or nearly 13%, under estimates.

ArcaSearch, a Cold Spring, Minnesota-based firm, sent a team in late 2022 to Jackson, site of the archives, to do the work.

"The company sent its image-capturing equipment, which included a foot pedal-operated table with pressurized air that ensures a paper record is perfectly flat," said Niederkorn, who has headed the archives center since November 2020.

"They also brought an overhead camera with a lighting rig, which can capture an entire page of an old record. They do some cleanup and convert the file, and this is what is uploaded onto (our) website."

According to www.capecounty.us, the archive center holds some of the oldest records in the state of Missouri, dating back to 1798, well before Missouri gained statehood in 1821.

At that time, Pierre-Louis de Lorimier was commandant of the Cape Girardeau District of Louisiana during the Spanish regime.

Though de Lorimier could neither read nor write, he arranged land grants for the early settlers, held court and performed marriages for the inhabitants.

The county's collection of records includes documents written in English, German and French, with more than 4,500 cubic feet of records available for researchers.

"The physical books weigh anywhere from five to 30 pounds each and are heavy and awkward to handle. Turning each page, you have to be extraordinarily careful because you can easily tear one. Once a page is torn, it's torn forever. This digitization helps us to preserve the original documents, while also allowing better access for members of the public and county government staff," Niederkorn said.

In June 2021, the county commission OK'd Recorder of Deeds Drew Blattner's $15,000 request to use ArcaSearch to digitize old loose-leaf marriage licenses and marriage license applications.