A reply to my letter to IRAD Rec'd Oct 1999 Mr. Middleton, Thanks for your interest in and support of the IRAD program as well as your continued expression of concern for Washington County's public records. The Illinois State Archives has recently received an unusually large number of similar expressions of concern about Washington County records and efforts are underway to inquire into the situation and to offer Washington County officials the services of the Illinois State Archives and IRAD. Our goal, as ever, is not to interfere in county business or attempt to coerce county officials into something that will not benefit them and Washington County. We do have the resources to assist the county officials in the task of preserving valuable county records while making them available to researchers, local historians, and genealogists. Our services include microfilming of historically valuable records and placement of non-current records in a regional depository. These services are provided at no cost to the county and state law guarantees that records placed in a regional depository remain accessible to county officials, again at no cost to the county. Our interest in Washington County includes a desire to obtain copies of marriage records so that they can be included in the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, a database that was just recently placed on the State Archives Web site. Washington County is one of only 18 counties not currently represented in this database and we are anxious to get access to these records for this enormously popular project. The Marriage Index was used for more than 425,000 searches in the first 10 days it was online. Again, let me assure you that efforts are underway to make assistance available to Washington County officials, and I will let you know at such time as there is anything new to report. We really appreciate the concern you and many others have expressed and hopefully your efforts and ours will not go unrewarded. Sincerely, Karl Moore Robert J. Middleton