Centuries’ Worth of Ohio County Documents Now Online
Photo by Joselyn King Trending
WHEELING - The process took more than four years, but now more than 240 years of Ohio County documents and history are available online.
Among these documents are deeds, deeds of trust, wills, settlements, appraisements, tax land books and plats of record. These county records in Ohio County date back to 1776.
They now can be viewed at OhioCountyWVclerk.com following the efforts of Ohio County Clerk Mike Kelly.
Previously the documents were recorded in books that were found only at the Ohio County Library, and required to be stored there. Over time the books became too pricey to produce, with the average yearly cost being $12,000 a year, according to Kelly.
Storage space also became an issue. The clerk's office ran out of shelf space in January 2013, and books could be found sitting on the floors in the office.
"Courthouses are not equipped to provide that much space to hold the weight of so many books," Kelly explained. Older books with hard covers weigh at least 17 pounds; and newer plastic cover ones, 11 pounds.
A former real estate and estate-planning attorney, Kelly explained he spent much of his 36-year legal career researching the documents in the hardbound books and wishing they were more easily accessible to the public.
After he was first elected county clerk in 2016, Kelly made it a priority to put the documents online.
"Something had to be done to stem the tide," he explained. "The books couldn't be put in storage because they were needed daily by the public. Putting them online was my goal, but to comply with the law, we'd still have to produce the books and find storage for them - two monthly costs we'd rather not have."
But West Virginia law still required the books be kept at the courthouse.
Kelly worked with West Virginia Senate Majority Whip Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, in drafting a bill removing the mandate that physical books of recorded documents be kept at the courthouse. The legislation instead permitted the books and future documents to be scanned and kept electronically, with the hard-copy books stored off-site, freeing up space in the office.
He credits each of his staff with assisting him in scanning most all of the books, with employee Becky Britton supervising the effort.
"It has been a huge undertaking, but with an equally huge benefit," Kelly said. "Now the public can access these records much more easily, the record books will be safe from further damage, and we're saving $12,000 a year by not producing more books and we've freed up office space that the county commissioners can use for other purposes. It's a 'win' all the way around."
But the work is not quite finished. After the scanning of an estimated 3,193,000 images, about 5 percent of the downloading of records from old deed of trust books between 1776 and 1958 still need to be processed, according to Kelly.
Birth, death and marriage records are not available online, and will continue to be available only by visiting the office with accepted identification, he said.
Computer kiosks are available within the clerk's office for use by the public needing to search for records while at the office.