Adrian, MI – The Lenawee Historical Society is utilizing a scanner, thanks to a recent donation, to digitize photographic negatives. The society talked about the project in their newsletter. They said that the donation was for $10,000 earmarked specifically for digitizing genealogical records and documents in the archive.
They purchased a desktop book scanner in an effort to chip away at some of the records in the archives. Staff and interns began the process of scanning items when time permitted, but due to other priorities, digitizing was still a ‘back burner’ effort.
With this recent donation, they are able to move the effort to the front burner and retain a paid individual, operating as a contractor, dedicated specifically to this task. Paul Plassman, a graduate of Siena Heights University, has been retained to begin scanning tax records.
Paul was a history major and served as an intern at the museum for the final semester of his senior year.
When the county courthouse burned in 1852 the property tax books were among the few records that were not destroyed. Around 200 volumes are held in the museum archives. They date from 1839 through the early years of the 20th century.
Digitizing the tax books will make them more accessible and less intimidating to use while enabling the originals to be preserved for years to come.
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