WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The Jefferson County Clerk’s Office is in the midst of an ambitious undertaking to preserve history with the help of technology.
Maps, deeds, and court records, some hundreds of years old, are making their way into the 21st century.
It’s part of the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office’s ongoing effort to digitize its records, preserving them for years to come.
“The work that goes in to digitization is very lengthy. It’s very long and gruesome work,” said Gizelle Meeks, county clerk.
Gruesome work for sure, with books being scanned page by page. The items are old, dating back to the founding of Jefferson County in 1805. Some items are even older, like a survey book belonging to James Le Ray de Chaumont, the namesake for both Le Ray and Chaumont.
“Le Ray De Chaumont was one of the surveyors at the time that was doing up the different property lines at the time,” said Mandy Clermont, deputy county clerk.
With items that old, special precautions have to be taken, so the office isn’t taking any risks.
“We, ahead of time, find out anything that could cause a wrinkle in the project to determine a solution before we even get to that point,” said Clermont.
The records aren’t just safer after they’ve been put on a computer; they’ve also become a lot easier to access anytime, anywhere.
“They can literally go up to our clerks at the front counter and say I’m looking for a deed from this person to this person filed this date. We can pull it up and print it. They’re literally in and out in 10-15 minutes,” said Clermont.
So far, the office has digitized 478 books. Workers have 272 to go.
“I can’t speak enough of the staff here at the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office. They have been fantastic with this digitization project and they’re very proud. The public should be proud of them as well,” said Meeks.
Digitizing a single deed book takes a few days, so with 272 books to go, it’ll be at least several years before every one of them is able to be accessed from a computer.
Copyright 2025 WWNY. All rights reserved.
