with thanks from yesterday's Wilmington News Journal- article on-line at delawareonline.com DVDs to replace NCCo paper records Marriage license, genealogy searches to take seconds By CHARLOTTE HALE / The News Journal 11/27/2000 The 400,000 index cards, hundreds of microfilm reels, and 100 binders and books used to keep track of marriage licenses issued over nearly the past century in New Castle County are being replaced - by 30 DVDs. County Clerk of the Peace Kenneth W. Boulden Jr. said finding recent records in the paper and film archives usually takes his staff no more than 20 minutes. But hunting for older records can take hours - and occasionally days - because many are disorganized and incomplete. Some card indexes list only the groom's name. Pages in books of handwritten indexes are ripped. Clear tape holds together disintegrating microfilm. The records are used in everything from divorce and estate cases to genealogical searches, and converting them into a digital format means searches could be done by computer. Searches will take seconds and be more accurate once a computer server is built to manage the information, Boulden said. "You probably wouldn't have time to finish your cup of coffee before we'd get done," he said, "whereas before you might have been able to have a couple of meals and a good night's sleep," he said. Setting up the new system cost county government $46,000. It is expected to be ready by January. Clerk of the Peace offices in Kent and Sussex counties have computerized records back to 2001 and 2002, respectively. Everything else still is on paper. But the clerk and clerk-elect in those counties plan to explore following New Castle County's example. Carl Heckert, an attorney for the law office of Joseph W. Benson, P.A., in Wilmington, expects the computerized records system to make his job easier. He said he must obtain a certified copy of a couple's marriage license before he can initiate a divorce case. While he said getting certified copies of marriage licenses that are as much as 15 years old usually takes no more than a few days, obtaining records from the 1950s sometimes take weeks. Keeping birth, death and marriage records on computer is increasingly common because the format makes searches faster, said Mark Monacelli, president of the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks. However, Monacelli said the technology also poses challenges. For instance, the need to keep some personal information private must be balanced with public demand for better access to the records through the Internet. Constance Cooper, director of the library and archive for the Historical Society of Delaware, said computerizing records is an attractive alternative since paper takes up so much space. However, she said the permanence of computer records also must be considered. Every time computer formats change, the computer records must change. Boulden said he will keep all the paper records in the office in Wilmington until he is sure there are no problems with the new system. After that, he will continue keeping paper records dating back about 20 years - which is the period the staff researches most often - in case of system breakdowns. He said he hopes to store the rest in the county or state archives. Boulden said one goal in setting up the system is to help the other two counties do the same, so all can be linked. This would allow people to go into any clerk of the peace office statewide and get the marriage records they need. Once that's done, he hopes to make the information available online so the public can do searches from home. Contact Charlotte Hale at 324-2792 or _chale@delawareonline.com_ (mailto:chale@delawareonline.com)