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Archiver > NCBLADEN > 2004-03 > 1078583667


From:
Subject: Re: [NCBLADEN-L] Old Bladen County Court Records seen at a recenttrip to Bladen County Court House
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2004 08:34:46 -0600 (GMT-06:00)


DEE, Jerome here and I have a solution.

Sampson Co. had a "Pile" of old records when I was young and
I found my gm's second marriage among them. Being honest
as I was I did not take the record but put it back. Years later
these records were all gone and the basement had an office
in it.

The LDS Church makes copies of county records to preserve them
and presents the county with a copy. Currently the LDS Church is using
digital cameras and likely all of these records would fit one or two DVDs.
A DVD will hold 5-6 CDs and a CD will hold 700megs. Depending
on the Camera and settings, a floppy disk 1.44meg will hold a book
and a CD will hold 500 floppy disk.

Then, the Bladen Co. Historial Society could get a copy of all records for
about $10. Then if it took 50 years to transribt them, the records would
be protected. The DVDs could also be copied and farmed out and these
records could be extracted by many cousins in a few years and we all could
enjoy these priceless jewels.

Some of my records as a private researcher were photographed about 20
years ago and I know the Church is still doing this and has a crew in NC.

If you will tell me who will give access to these records, I will get their name
to the LDS Church and they will copy to preserve this records. They have billions
of records that a FHC can order and the world can order and use these records.
Infact, their catalog on Bladen is posted on FamilySearch.org and you can see
what they already have on Bladen or any county in NC. There is a FHC in Fayetteville
NC and at least one in Atlanta. As you know I call Atlanta, the City of Angels.

Jerome Tew and I did get the information off my grandmother's record before
I put it back, but I regret now not taken the record, since it was trashed.








-----Original Message-----
From: Dee Thompson <>
Sent: Mar 5, 2004 10:00 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [NCBLADEN-L] Old Bladen County Court Records seen at a recent trip to Bladen County Court House

John,
Four (?) years ago when we were in Bladen for a visit and planned
meeting with a number of people on this List Elizabeth Turner took us
to her "office" in the basement of the courthouse. There were three
rooms off a central room ( that had glass cases with some valuable
memorabilia). The three rooms were literally stacked to the ceilings
with records and boxes and ledgers, loose papers - all stuff that Lib
prayed would be organized at some point. The problem as I remember
her explanation was that the Bladen County Historical Society could
not afford to pay anyone to type up all the stacks of records even if
the Society could afford to publish them. I bet the information in
those rooms would solve all of our problems that have roots in Bladen.
People had send in countless Family and Bible records that no one has
ever seen. Lib can't do it and no one else seems to have a solution.
You could tell how defeated Lib felt but she only works a day or so a
week and is certainly not paid. No one is. I asked her if it were
possible that we each (perhaps 2 or 3 at a time) could take a week or
two of vacation and take laptops into that area to start the process
of transcribing these priceless records. Bob and I told her we would
be honored to pay for the publication of a few volumes but she said
the problem was the transcribing - tedious work, expensive work, and
no one to do it. I think that unless these records are in a bound
form there is no place for them to be safe and still be available to
the public. Therein lies the problem. They have to have help and at
some point they have to let those of us who cherish this stuff in
there to help, no matter how nervous it makes them. Perhaps a court
reporter might facilitate the speed of transcription. Maybe we could
beg a community college or even one of the larger colleges to take on
these rooms as a project. We personally are willing to do anything at
all to get those stacks in print.
I imagine within 10 minutes of reading this email Allen Johannes will
be firing off an email to us all. He has raged against this situation
since we learned of it.
There has to be something we all can do. A fabulous solution
(naturally it's just my opinion) would be for each of us interested in
this to pay for the shipping and insurance of a stack of these records
to our home for us to type up and return to BCHS in a form ready for
publication. I know the risk but what will become of the contents of
these three rooms if nothing is done?
Now that this elephant-in-the-living-room has been noticed lets not
pretend these records won't still be in those rooms fifty years from
now.
Much love to you all,
Dee
For details on the reference sources used for lookups, refer to this
link:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ncbladen/lookups.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Johnson" <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 6:16 PM
Subject: [NCBLADEN-L] Old Bladen County Court Records seen at a recent
trip to Bladen County Court House


Hi, List

I was at the Bladen County Court House recently and asked at the Clerk
of
Superior Court if I could see the old records. I was told that they
had
nothing more recent than the early 1900s and that the old records had
either
burned or had been sent to Raleigh. I asked if I could look at the
old
storage room that was in the basement and they were kind enough to
provide
me an escort to that room.

There were many old ledgers in the room and I only looked at a few. I
had
an employee with me and I was running short of time. I did find a
couple of
ledgers that provided some information on one of the families that I
was
researching. I don't know what else is in that storage room but it
would be
good for someone to inventory it.

I found a ledger titled "Civil Issues 1885-1925, Bladen County" and
another
titled "Judgement Docket Superior Court" that had entries dating from
1877.

Following are some examples of information that were in those ledgers:

Number 2603 John Monrow versus WH Porter; judgement rendered fall
1877
against plaintiff for costs.

Number 2833 JMK Robison versus WH Porter; July docketed 12 Sep 1881
against
each party for his own costs.

Number 2842 J. McK. Mulford, administrator of W.H. Porter, versus Mary
A.
Porter and others...Judgement of Confirmation of reports of sale of
land,
see Judgement Roll...no costs or money were paid into this office...as
the
administrator paid all parties their costs and took receipts. The
administrator paid my costs in full and has receipts for
same...(dated)16
Jan 1882 (signed) N.A. Steadman, Jr., CSC

JJohnson
Kingwood TX





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