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Chuck Ketterman with Brown’s River Preservation came to the Greensboro office of the Guilford County Register of Deeds recently. He picked up a number of Marriage Licenses that are in need of preservation. Marriages ranging from 1865 to 1899 are now being preserved through efforts of the Register of Deeds, funding through Automated Enhancement and Preservation Funds, and approval of the Board of Commissioners. Through deacidification, encapsulation, and repair, these records will be viewable by future generations.

This project will take place over the next three to five years.    Brown’s River specializes in the public records conservation, restoration, and preservation needs of counties and municipalities.   They are located in Essex, VT. 

 To aid in understanding preservation, here are some common terms used.

Deacidify/deacidification:  Chemically neutralize acidity and introduce buffering agent utilizing Bookkeeping spray (magnesium oxide).

Surface Clean:  Remove dirt, grime, soot using erasers, eraser crumbs, brushes or scalpels as appropriate.

Repair/Mend:  Physically treat the material to, as unobtrusively as possible, mitigate tears, rips, and other weak areas utilizing Japanese (Brown’s River) tissue papers and acid-free reversible adhesives or Crompton heat-set tissue.

Encapsulate:  Enclose materials in envelopes of clear, stable, inert, 3 mil thick archival grade polyester film: envelopes are heat-sealed on the three sides for ease of retrieval of encapsulated materials.

Bind, bound: Rehouse in custom-made public records post binders.

The Guilford County Register of Deeds is partnering with Business Information Systems to redact social security numbers from land record documents from 1982- forward. The project will cover over 5 million images and begin in September 2007.

This redaction initiative is an effort to remove this personal information from electronic images. The Identity Theft Protection Act of 2005 gives citizens the right to request the Register of Deeds redact the personal information listed below. Our office is taking this going further to protect citizens.

General Statue 132-1.8.(f) Any person has the right to request that a register of deeds or clerk of court remove, from an image or copy of an official record placed on a register of deeds’ or court’s Internet Web site available to the general public or an Internet Web site available to the general public used by a register of deeds or court to display public records by the register of deeds or clerk of court, the person’s social security, employer taxpayer identification, drivers license, state identification, passport, checking account, savings account, credit card, or debit card number, or personal identification (PIN) code or passwords contained in that official record. The request must be made in writing, legibly signed by the requester, and delivered by mail, facsimile, or electronic transmission, or delivered in person to the register of deeds or clerk of court. The request must specify the personal information to be redacted, information that identifies the document that contains the personal information and unique information that identifies the location within the document contains the social security, employer taxpayer identification, drivers license, state identification, passport, checking account, savings account, credit card, or debit card number, or personal identification (PIN) code passwords to be redacted. The request for redaction shall be considered a public record with access restricted to the register of deeds, the clerk of court, their staff, or upon order of the court.