Fellow rooters, Thought I would pass this along since it is important. Subj: Grainger County, TN. records--please help!!! Date: 97-07-20 19:27:22 EDT From: [email protected] (Diana Flynn) From Billie R. McNamara's Grainger County GENWEB page: "Grainger County, Tennessee, Records Storage I recently made a plea to a few genealogy-related LISTs for messages of support for reclamation of the few historic records that still remain in Grainger County, Tennessee. I thought you might be interested in seeing the state of things today. Grainger County was formed in 1796. Its position on the Holston River and on the main stagecoach road from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Abingdon, Virginia, with a road to the Cumberland Gap, means Grainger County was like a turnstile in westward migration. Within the past few years, all the earliest records were moved to a vault in the basement of the county's courthouse for safekeeping. Unfortunately, the vault flooded. When that happened, the county saved what appeared salvageable and threw away the rest. The salvaged records were moved to an abandoned school building for temporary storage --that has turned into long-term storage because the county can not afford to refurbish the vault, clean and conserve the records, and return them to safekeeping. Through a joint venture between the Tennessee State Library and Archives and the Genealogical Society of Utah (LDS), Tennessee's earliest loose records can be filmed. I am working with the GSU as a local point of contact to try to convince the county records custodians in East Tennessee to let the filming crew have access to the records. That is how I got to witness this nightmare. When I recently helped survey the Grainger County records, I was saddened beyond measure. We could find no loose records (court cases papers, marriage licenses, etc.) from before about 1880. Most of the old, leather-bound volumes are also gone. Thank goodness the State Library and Archives microfilmed most of them about 20 years ago." Write the Governor of Tennessee, Donald Sunquist, at: [email protected] The state representative for Grainger County is: DENNIS EDWARD ROACH R-Rutledge District 35 District Address Route 3, Box 557 Rutledge, TN 37861 Nashville Address 205 War Memorial Building Nashville, TN 37243-0135 Phone (615) 741-2534 Staff Contact: Ruth Patterson Internet E-Mail Address [email protected] The e-mail address for Mr. Allen Williams who is the reporter who reported the story on Grainger County and the terrible mess that they have with their records is: [email protected] Sorry if some of you see this more than once. Mary Anne