A part of our collective history—marriage licenses, deeds and other brittle, aging documents—will be saved for future generations, thanks to funding from the Library of Virginia.

Circuit court clerks in Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex counties were all recently awarded grants from the library’s Circuit Court Records Preservation program to preserve and digitize local records.

In Mathews

Angela Ingram, clerk of Mathews, received a total of $26,412.50 to conserve Fee Book 1799; Fee Book 1823; Marriage Licenses 1878-1883; Marriage Licenses 1884-1888; Marriage Licenses 1889-1894; Personal Property Tax Book and Land Tax, 1841; and Personal Property Tax Book and Land Tax, 1844.

Kofile Technologies, a company which digitizes and restores documents for local governments, will preserve the physical record books as well as digitize the records.

“We’d like to retire the books,” said Ingram. She would eventually like all the records digitized so people can just use the computers to better protect the books and also for their convenience, but would like to keep them around for public use in case of power outage.

In Gloucester

Cathy Dale, clerk of Gloucester, was awarded $67,606 to digitize Index to Deeds: Grantor & Grantee, from Jan. 1, 1961 to Dec. 31, 1975 and Deed Books 121 to 189; Index to Deeds: Grantor & Grantee, from Jan. 1, 1976 to Dec. 31, 1983 and Deed Books 189 to 266; Index to Deeds: Grantor & Grantee, from Jan. 1, 1984 to Aug. 31, 1994 and Deed Books 266 to 483; Deed Books, from Sept. 1, 1994 to 1995, 483 to 501.

This grant will help people expand their digital search to the last 60 years and make the public less reliant on the physical record books, which can be very heavy.

In Middlesex

Rachel Hartenbach, clerk of Middlesex, was awarded a conservation grant in the amount of $26,679.50 which will be used to restore eight books. She also received a Reformatting/Indexing grant in the amount of $33,650 to back-scan land records from 1987-2000.

Hartenbach said that she is looking forward to completing these projects over the next year.

Since 1990, the Circuit Court Records Preservation program has awarded over 1,100 grants totaling more than $25 million. This year, the program awarded $4.7 million to 101 localities to assist the clerks’ offices with their preservation efforts.

The CCRP is a collaborative program between the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Court Clerks Association. Funded through a $3.50 portion of the clerks’ recordation fee, the CCRP provides resources to help preserve and make accessible permanent circuit court records stored in the 120 circuit courts and at the Library of Virginia.

For more information on the Circuit Court Records Preservation Program’s resources and services, visit www.lva.virginia.gov.