Historical county documents now available in digital, searchable form

     There is a free, new service available to the public via the Jones County Auditor and Recorder’s websites.

   Both sites now contain a link that allows the public to research, view, and download historical county archive documents.

   Over a year ago, in May 2023, both elected officials and the Jones County Board of Supervisors began discussing the option of using the county’s ARPA funds to cover the cost of scanning and digitizing historical documents in both the auditor and recorder’s offices and upload them to the county’s website (jonescountyiowa.gov).

   A company called ArcaSearch, based out of Minnesota, performed the work on-site at the courthouse. The total cost of the project was $167,162.21.

   “The price played a little factor into it,” said County Auditor Whitney Hein of who they chose to go with for this project. “This has been a really popular project for counties with their ARPA funds. There are not a lot of companies that do this. One of the things with this company is they come on-site so you don’t have to transfer your books. That was a big deal.”

   ArcaSearch worked at the courthouse for eight weeks scanning books and documents. They had two full-time employees on-site. In addition, they hired a handful local people throughout that timeframe.

   “It was almost like a picture-taking process,” Hein explained. “Some of the books, they had to have the air sucked out of them. They had air compressors down there.”

   “It was labor intensive,” added Jones.

   The types of historical digital archives you’ll find via the Auditor’s Office include:

   • Transfer of land and transfer of land lots from the 1860s through 2023

   • Board of Supervisor minutes from 1861 through 2023

   • Election results from the 1930s through 2023

   Through the Recorder’s Office, you’ll find:

   • General index deeds

   • Deed index town lots

   • Index to miscellaneous records from 1842 through 1993

   To access the digital archives, simply visit the recorder or auditor’s webpages. On each, you’ll see a button noting “Historical Document Archive.” Then, clock the link with the same name. The next page takes you to an image of the courthouse. Under the photo, click “access all public documents.”

   “They have super crisp images,” praised Hein of the scanning process.

   “ArcaSearch had some of the best images when they came and did their presentation for us,” Jones added.

   While the historical archives went live a couple of weeks ago, the record books via the Recorder’s Office will be released for public viewing following a redaction review process to block sensitive information.

   “The redaction will be included with the cost,” noted County Recorder Sheri Jones. “My office will do the redaction review in-house. There are 231 books that we have to look at for PII (personally identifiable information).”

   PII includes such information as Social Security numbers, account numbers, etc.

   “We have to do this before those documents can be available to the public online,” continued Jones. “All of my indexes are out there. None of the images are available until we get the redaction review done. It’s hard to say how long that’s going to take. I don’t have a feel for it yet.”

   Both Jones and Hein said the whole idea behind the project was to make these historical archives and documents more readily available and accessible to the public.

   While both county offices still have the books these documents and records were retrieved from, having them online helps to preserve the books.

   The added bonus to having everything online is that the public can now also search the archives. Hein explained that every document or record that was typed, whether via a typewriter or computer, is now searchable. If it is a handwritten document, it is not searchable.

   “Sometimes I’ll get questions about historical election records,” Hein shared. “Has there ever been a female supervisor? Has a female ever run for supervisor? The canvass election documents can lead someone to that answer. There has never been a female supervisor; but women have run for that office.”

   By looking at the election canvass results from decades past, you’ll notice that in 1922, for instance, there were 23 county voting precincts. Today, we have 14.

   “We used to have a lot of precincts,” Hein noted. “People back then probably couldn’t travel as far.”

   Jones said some people might want to see the copy of the deed to their family’s farm for nostalgia purposes.

   “This allows them to do it at their convenience, not necessarily when we’re open to be able to come in,” she said.

   The public can save and print as many documents as they want now.

   Many of the documents online stop in 2023. For updated information and records, you’ll have to go through the appropriate county office.