Need to find a deed from 1822? Rush County's historical deed indexes are now online!

This week, we are pleased to announce that images of the Historical Indexes in Rush County are available via Doxpop.

This is important for researchers because although many older documents have been scanned, until they are also indexed on the computer, the only way to locate them is by looking in the index books and then using the Book & Page to find the image.

Although many Recorders are working to "back-index" all of those old images, it will take some time to accomplish that. In the meantime, you can use the online version of the book index to locate the older document images. You can browse the books just as you would in the office, and when you locate the document you need, enter the Book & Page in the search area in the top right corner, and go straight to that image (if it exists.) 

You can access the historical book indexes from Doxpop's advanced Recorded Document search page or from the Recorded Documents tab. Here's a direct link if you want to give it a try right away: https://www.doxpop.com/prod/in/recorder/ManualIndex/18188

Congratulations to Debbie Richardson and her staff for making this new feature available for Rush County!

Dearborn Historical Indexes- Now you can browse the index for deeds from 1903 online!

The Dearborn County Recorder is doing some great work to preserve records and provide greater online access by back-indexing deeds on their computer system and adding access to scanned images of the historical paper indexes.

On the computer indexing side, they have been adding scanned images of older deeds, and indexing them. The most recent batch released covers 1988, so Dearborn now has 37 years of deed history fully indexed and available online. The index for all document types begins in July of 2000, providing nearly 25 years of full document history.

This back-indexing work is an important part of record preservation and access because it is much easier to archive multiple copies of images and index information when it is in electronic form. 

Those familiar with local history will know that in 1826, the Dearborn County Courthouse burned, destroying all records stored there. If a similar disaster were to occur today, the County's Recorded Documents would continue to be available without interruption online while rebuilding or office relocation occurred. In addition, full recovery of the electronic records could be done in about one day, so "restarting" the office would be a relatively easy task.

In a related preservation project, the Recorder has scanned the paper index that covers deeds from the year 1903 forward. Now that these records are in electronic form, they are similarly preserved in case of disaster, and as an added benefit, they are now available online through Doxpop's advanced search page. 

When you use the images of the paper index, you should be aware that this is a snapshot of the paper index, and any manual corrections or notes made after that snapshot won't appear. Fortunately, these corrections are rare, given the historical nature of the information.

Please join us in congratulating Joyce Oles and her excellent staff for all of the work they have put into both preserving documents and making them more readily available online!