The Warren, Rhode Island, Town Hall vault, contains birth records, death records, land evidence forms, and marriage licenses and at one time the town was in jeopardy of losing 300-years worth of information to deterioration. That is changing. Following is an excerpt from an interesting article about the efforts to save the town history.
According to Town Clerk Julie Coelho, records bound by paper and hand-written in ink were beginning to fray and deteriorate from light
exposure and hand contact. Most were badly in need of repair, otherwise, they would continue to crumble and the town would lose information regarding family trees and property ownership. The oldest document was created in 1746.
“The documents were falling apart, they were starting to turn to dust,” said Ms. Coelho.
However Dolores Trombly, former Town Clerk, galvanized town officials to preserve town records in 1990 after she asked Town Council members to give her money to start the process. They gave her $5,000 to hire professional preservation companies to seal aging documents while also recording the information to put it in electronic databases. In the first year, about five of the oldest books left in the cellar were saved.
Read the full article about the Warren Town Records in the April 14, 2009 edition of Eastbayri.com.
