Digitizing Cape County records 'a big job,' recorder says

Cape Girardeau County Recorder Drew Blattner is seeking a grant to digitize more documents on file with his office in Jackson � a process he called both time- and cost-prohibitive.

The indexes to the deed books are deteriorating, Blattner said, and that�s a big problem.

These indexes are big books, legal-size, bound and filed under a countertop in the recorder�s office.

Each index record within the books points to another record in the more than 600 books also on file in the recorder�s office.

Those 600 books are used to establish chain of ownership of a given piece of property in Cape Girardeau County, Blattner said.

A row of shelved deed records is seen Thursday in the Recorder of Deeds Office at the Cape Girardeau County Administration Building in Jackson.BEN MATTHEWS

A note on the counter explains which books are for which time frame, and within each book, the records are alphabetized by last name of the grantor and grantee, Blattner said.

Index after index is showing wear. Bindings are breaking, pages are torn or folded, dirty or crumbling at the edges.

It�s because the books are handled by so many searchers, every day, Blattner said.

Carlene Newell, who works for a land title company, called herself a searcher.

�I look for the chain of title,� she said, finding out who owned the property in question, who it was sold to, whether or not the property has easements � all important information for an applicant seeking title insurance, she said.

And, Blattner said, it�s very common to have as many as eight to 10 searchers in the room at a given time.

Some records are already on the computers on site, but for the rest, Blattner said, the digitization process would allow searchers to quickly find the information they�re after without potentially causing more damage to the books.

That�s where the grant comes in.

The grant, from the Missouri Secretary of State�s local records preservation program, would allow Blattner�s office to hire a company with specialized equipment to scan the books without damaging them, and add the information to silver microfilm.

The company would handle all of the scanning, file optimization, cropping, inspecting and any other work the files might need, Blattner said.

The microfilm would be stored at the state archives in Jefferson City, Blattner said, and the recorder�s office would have access to it.

Blattner said he requested the state provide about $24,000 in funds to digitize the index books, and about $12,000 from the county for a total of nearly $37,000.

He won�t hear back until late summer this year, he said, but this isn�t the first time he�s applied for a grant.

Last year, Blattner said, he was awarded a grant to convert aperture cards, or index cards with a chip of microfilm mounted inside, containing county residents� military discharge records.

�Those have been digitized,� Blattner said, and while those records aren�t accessible to the public, they are a resource for veterans.

The year before, a grant allowed the office to purchase a new microfilm reader and scanner combination.

But the digitization of the index books is just the first phase of what he hopes to accomplish, Blattner said. The scanned files still would have to be indexed by grantor and grantee, as modern files are.

�These documents date all the way back to 1805,� Blattner said. �It�s a big job.�

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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