Hello to all, There have been a couple of people who have expressed concerns about the disposition of some of the records on the 7th floor. As per my earlier message, ADAH has advised that a general house cleaning take place before any preservation project can really get underway. The below link will take you to a 48 page leaflet written by ADAH on Record Dispositions. ADAH has written many of our regulations concerning old records and that is because they are in the archive business and would know what should be kept and what has not needed to be. ADAH has no judicial powers but are recognized by State and County Governments as our Archives and usually accept their recommendations. There will have to be an understanding that nobody can save everything. Generally, records that do not require long retention periods have the same information that could be found in some other record that may be kept permanently. Also, many courthouses are microfilming records, which are considered original at that point, before destroying the real paper original. The link below is for records in Probate Court and the 7th floor records will be mostly Circuit Court but I am comfortable in saying they will be treated similarly. In any case, all records regardless of what Dept or Agency created them, that are dated before 1900, are considered Historic and are required to be kept permanently. Regarding some of the more modern records that can be disposed of and the chance of Historic records being tossed out with them. That is a valid concern and should be watched for but I honestly don't think we will have a problem with that. How I can say that is because the Circuit Court Clerk at the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse is also a Genealogist. She has been very cooperative and understanding because she shares our concerns. We on the other hand must also remember that she is a courthouse official and must follow the proper procedures. We can not ask her to bend the rules. I am certain she will act in our favor as much as possible. After the elections, I will ask for a meeting with her and ask that we be allowed to help with this general cleaning. Perhaps, she can mark the boxes that can be removed. Local volunteers could then move them for her but the final destroying will have to be in her hands. She is the one responsible for all the records. With that last statement, let me say again that ADAH only did a spot tour and did find some records that do not belong to the Circuit Court. I must leave that to them to decide on the who, what and where of dealing with those records. The main thing is that most of the records on the 7th floor will fall under the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court and that Clerk is a genealogist, so we are in good shape. Take care. Bye, Mike [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> http://www.archives.state.al.us/officials/rdas/local/ProbateRDA.pdf<http://www.archives.state.al.us/officials/rdas/local/ProbateRDA.pdf>