-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 1:42 AM To: [email protected] Subject: WHITLEY CO., KY COUNTY CLERK To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2001 4:25 PM Subject: [CRR] Whitley Clerk to destroy records I just visited the County Clerks office in Whitley County where he informed me that he is going to destroy 4 Bond Settlement Guardian Books from 1800's - 1920's. They are from the circuit court. He also informed me that he is not obligated to carry the marriage certificate books and he could destroy those if he wanted. I asked if they had been microfilmed and they have not. I don't know what to do. Does anybody have any suggestions? The Whitley County Genweb page was not far off in their comments regarding the County Clerk office. Karen ~~~~~ Karen, the only thing I know you could do is to contact the State Rep for that district requesting that the local genealogy society or interested persons receive the "books" that are to be thrown out. Why would they care who had them if they are only going to destroy them (probably meaning that they will throw them out with the garbage)? Although some people seem to delight in destroying rather than preserving. Do you live in the area? How about a petition? When is our government (local, state and national) going to realize that the people want our heritage preserved? We, as a nation, preserve relevant historical documents and sometimes not so relevant. State and local government needs to get with the program. If you need others to help with writing letters to anyone, let us know. I am sure that the people on this list would help with a writing campaign and probably a few other lists as well. A lot of our ancestors came from Whitley County and I don't feel like giving up that information. Linda ~~~~ Goodness! This is alarming news. It sounds like a taunt, but what sort of public employee would say such things? Are his bosses (the public and the county commissioners) aware of his threat to public records? Perhaps they should be made aware. If I had the telephone numbers of the commissioners, I would certainly give one or two of them a call and report on the Whitley County Clerk. Has he threatened such things in the past? Is it not his job to preserve public records and provide access to them? Can the list provide a history of the clerk's statements and activities which might be a basis for a public move to protect the records? Kathie ~~~~ [email protected] The Whitley County Clerk must be some kind of NUT. The world is full of people like him who want to deny the world history from the past. Surely the county can put them somewhere for safe keeping. Les ~~~~~~ Contact the LDS Church to make arrangements to have them microfilmed. They will then be preserved for all of us to use. Bruce ~~~~~ : [email protected] I found the email address for the local newspaper in Whitley county Kentucky. Maybe if we emailed them they could put a stop to them destroying the records and make everyone in their community aware of what is going on. Their e-mail address is [email protected] If anyone has the addresses or phone numbers of the local government I would appreciate it. I cannot find them yet. Thank you for all your suggestions. I have visited the Knox and Laurel County Clerks offices and they were wonderful people. I will not go into all of what he said, but it was quite disturbing. Again thank you all, and maybe we can get that County Clerk to think twice about destroying our families histories. Karen ~~~~~ [email protected] Karen, I have forward your original alert to the KY state librarian and also the one in charge of the records division. I found their names and email addresses by doing a search (via google.com) for Kentucky State Library. The more people they hear from the better. Can someone find the names and email addresses of the representative and senator for the area? You said the ones at the Knox and Laurel County Clerks offices were very helpful. Would they have any suggestions as to how to prevent the destruction? Off to write the newspaper. -Judy ~~~~~ [email protected] Leslie, You made a very important point! We should seek the transfer of the records rather than the prevention of destruction. -Judy (Kansas City, MO)