HEIRS scans 28,111 pages of handwritten town records from as early as 1859

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By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press

The Harrow Early Immigrant Research Society (HEIRS) volunteers have recently completed a scanning project in cooperation with the Town of Essex’s Clerk’s Department.

With a mission to promote and advocate for the preservation and study of genealogical and local history in the original Township of Colchester, in part, through the collection and preservation of print artifacts and written materials related to local history, HEIRS volunteers set out to scan and digitize as many of the handwritten minutes and by-laws that could be located.

To date, HEIRS has scanned and digitized 28,111 pages of handwritten records. That includes minutes and by-laws of Colchester North, minutes of Colchester South, minutes of Colchester Township, minutes and by-laws of the Village of Essex Centre, Essex Town by-laws and minutes, and Harrow minutes.

The range of years goes back to as early as 1859 to the most recent being 1964.

Laurie Brett, Secretary/Treasurer of HEIRS, explained she approached the Town’s Clerk’s Department around a year ago and received permission to undertake this large-scale project.

HEIRS scanned from three different record types, including large bound books into which the Clerks would write with pen, binders of quasi-official and looseleaf minutes and by-laws some of the clerks maintained, and microfilm reels of early Colchester South and Colchester North that were in the HEIRS resource collection.

Throughout the course of undertaking the scanning project, Brett said it was discovered many young people, including some of HEIRS’s volunteers, cannot read cursive writing, which was used in record keeping.

“Advances in handwriting technology have made it possible to scan these pages, transcribe them, and make them searchable,” Brett explained to Essex Council at the July 16 meeting when explaining the project.

Unfortunately, technology can’t always compensate for faded type, ink blots, or damage.

“A poor choice of a pen 100-years ago often means we are dealing with faded type today. More tragic than that is when pages start to decompose, due to adverse environmental factors,” Brett added.

The good news is that HEIRS has been able to make the vast majority of these records searchable.

Brett acknowledged the cooperation of the Town’s Clerk’s Department on this project. “They were critical to making this project successful,” Brett said, adding the books are heavy and not easily hauled-around. She also recognized the Board members and volunteers at HEIRS, who supported this project.

With this project complete, HEIRS has turned its sights on scanning a very large collection of photographs.

She also spoke of how the 130-years worth of Essex Free Press archives was recently transported to the Leddy Library Archives and Special Collections at the University of Windsor.

“Preserving the original print copies of our local newspapers has become a pressing issue in the face of significant challenges to the industry related to financial viability, ownership changes, and newsroom closures,” Brett said, who once served as Editor and Publisher of the Essex Free Press. Her family owned the newspaper from 1896 to 2011.

She credited her husband, Art Rhyno, for his interest in ensuring the local newspapers have been digitized. He also ran the Town’s minutes and by-laws through handwriting recognition software, making them searchable.

On behalf of the Town’s Clerk’s Department, Joe Malandruccolo, Director of Legal and Legislative Services, said they are thankful for the material and the efforts.

“We have already started using some of it, especially for drainage by-laws that were hard to find and not digitized. They were hard to get through,” Malandruccolo said.

Council received the delegation, with Mayor Sherry Bondy acknowledging HEIR’s efforts on this project.

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