POUGHKEEPSIE – The State Archives, a division of the education department, has awarded the Dutchess County Clerk’s Office $11,830 to continue the digital conversion of the county’s Ancient Documents Collection, court records of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The clerk’s office has received a total of $207,647 in state funding over seven years for the digital conversion.
“These funds have been fundamental in allowing us to execute our most innovative and impactful project,” said County Clerk Brad Kendall. “The Ancient Documents Search allows researchers from around the corner to around the globe access to our county’s archival holdings.”
County Historian William Tatum, III, Ph.D. said Dutchess County has “one of the more complete and older groupings of court records, covering the period from 1721-1889.” He said those manuscripts “reveal new perspectives into the lived experience of the rich, poor, and everyone in between during that period.”
The county clerk’s office also assisted Dutchess Community College with their successful application for funds for document conversion. The DCC project will convert students’ records dating from 1957-2000 from their current microfiche format to digital files.
