Archives - Macoupin County IL -A
Thank
you To Karl and Barbara at the IL State Archives
The Illinois State Archives site http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/about.html
provides background on the Archives, on IRAD and its holdings at
each
depository,
on its on-line databases, and other research materials. The
Archives
was
established in 1921 by Margaret Cross Norton, with the building
erected
in 1938. By law it is the depository of public records of
Illinois
state
and local governmental agencies which possess permanent research
value.
These records are made available to the public, officials, and
scholars
at the Norton Building and at seven regional (IRAD) depositories
located
on state university campuses throughout Illinois. IRAD was begun
in
1976
with a grant to the State Archives from the National Endowment
for the
Humanities. IRAD's local records include records of local
governments,
such as counties, townships, municipalities and school
districts. The
Archives
provides access to them through a series of printed and
electronic
guides,
and in-person, or by mail, telephone, FAX, and Internet database
reference
services. The Illinois State Archives operate under the
direction of
Jesse
White, Secretary of State and State Archivist.
Such a system is only as good as its people. The Illinois State
Archives
has many excellent and knowledgeable employees, from its
director on
down.
Two of them have been deeply involved in our records in Macoupin
Co.:
Karl
R. Moore, Supervisor of the IRAD System, and Barbara Heflin of
the same
office, who insures the quality of all the on-line databases.
They have
been coordinating the filming by the Illinois State Archives of
some of
Macoupin's oldest records, including the Assessor tax records,
the
Collector
tax records, and now the Chancery books, from the earliest about
1830,
up to at least 1920, all of which are housed at the Macoupin
County
Archives.
The tax films are now available at the Carlinville Public
Library, the
Macoupin County Historical Society and Museum in Carlinville,
and the
Staunton
Public Library which houses records of the Macoupin County
Genealogical
Society. This guarantees that these records will last for
decades, and
safeguards them by duplication.
Karl and Barbara are not merely desk people in ivory towers, but
actually
have come to both the Macoupin Co. Archives and the Museum and
loaded
and
unloaded dirty, dusty books in good weather and bad, in snow and
rain,
in 90 degree heat, and then get to do the same thing at the
Archives in
Springfield with each load of books. Karl has gladly made
himself
available
to talk about archival preservation methods, microfilm versus
CD, and
many
other related topics, to any group needing that information,
including
County officials and interested genealogists and family
researchers. He
and Barbara coordinate the filming of our records at the State
Archives
with the filming of many other series of records which by law
are to be
filmed. When the filming is done, the resulting films are
checked,
usually
by Barbara, for correctness and completeness, before they come
back to
us in Carlinville. Karl also drives to the many other IRAD
facilities
for
various reasons and is very knowledgeable about their holdings,
their
needs,
and the filming of their records too. Obviously they have many
other
duties
we know nothing about.
Because we haven't said it forcefully enough over the last 3
years or
so,
THANK YOU so very much, Karl and Barbara. We look forward to
working
with
you for many years to come.
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Macoupin County
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