By Kate Klimesh,
Jayne Schultz (l) and Lisa Grinna (r) are proud of the progress they have made in ensuring the historical records of Winneshiek County are forever preserved and accessible online. Records are available from 1850-1920 and 1970 to present day. Work continues to bridge the final 50 years’ records. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Kate Klimesh)
In the age of access to more information than a person can use via the internet, the Winneshiek County Recorders office has been working tirelessly and consistently to ensure information contained in their records is available and searchable online.
The Recorder’s Office has records dating back to 1850 – the same year of the federal census of the area which showed a population in Winneshiek County of 570 people. This was just prior to organization of the county in January 1851.
“The Recorder’s Office has been scanning in documents as they can in their spare time at least since 2005, when we first had access to a scanner — starting with documents in 2005 and working backwards as well as keeping up with present day,” noted County Recorder Jayne Schultz.
These “Legacy Documents,” including deeds, contracts and easements, warranty deeds, land transfers, town lots and grantor-grantee will be accessible through a link on the Winneshiek County website once the records are scanned in and indexed for searching. Also digitized are copies of military records but they are not for public access.
The Recorder’s Office hired ArcaSearch, a historical document scanning company to assist with scanning in approximately 90,000 pages of documents from 1850 through 1920. Staff from ArcaSearch spent two weeks in the postal room scanning in documents, providing scanning and indexing services. This was funded by American Rescue Plan Act funding provided to Winneshiek County during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Recorder’s Office currently has records from current day back to 1970 scanned in and accessible through Iowa Land Records website. Schultz noted the indexing done by the county staff is a bit more detailed than was done by ArcaSearch but will be another public access point for the historic information once the project is completed.
The scans were made from the records bound and kept in the Recorder’s Office archives, measuring 12.5” by 18.5” each. While some of the records are microfilmed, Schultz noted that paper records have not been kept by the Recorder’s Office since 2010. But they are backed up online for retrieval on Iowa Land Records website should there ever be a problem with the courthouse electronic storage.
To index the records, the staff enters in all available data from the records into the computer records system, then attaches the scan of the original document to that record. As a double-check system, the Auditor’s Office has the land tract index and board minutes, to help find the actual deed requested. The Auditor’s Office index books are now available through ArcaSearch for records 1850-1920, as announced recently in local media.
Records available by search include Board of Supervisors minutes, Real Estate Transfers and Deeds and other Miscellaneous Recorded Documents and Indexes.
Find the link “In the Spotlight” section of the Winneshiek County website, on the Recorder’s page or visit https://gov.arcasearch.com/usiawin/.
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