Being from Walnut, I also have seen the deplorable conditions. You might think the local chamber of commerce would seek the help of the local Boy Scouts, or student clubs, to get a number of them with adult supervision, and organize this mess. It certainly would not cost any money and it would certainly give visitors the idea that someone in the county actually cares. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that many of the old families of the county have died out and their ancestors have moved, just like my family did to Memphis, and other places. New arrivals have now taken over and have no records to survey, so it is not their problem. Certainly the local historical society has not had the ability nor the stroke to get anything done! Much the same thing could be said about the deplorable condition of many of the old cemeteries, most of these have by now been found and the same groups could start a preservation project for them also. I have done some of this myself. Certainly historic signs could be erected via state or federal monies so the old roads, cemeteries, churches, schools and vacated communities could be kept in perspective for future speculation. As it stands in another 40 years or so, most of the history of the county will only exist in a few books and family history studies. The relevance of these places will then be irrecoverably lost both for the historians but for the families who still reside there. All it would take is for some civic or business groups to organize, and make it part of their good deeds, sort of like a "we keep this highway clean" activity. Surely a group like the Scouts, the Beta Clubs, the Chambers of Commerce, as well as Masonic Lodges, and local churches could quickly take care of most of the problems within a year or two. I'd bet that within 50 years, the old downtown of Walnut will disappear completely as has that of Faulkner, Chalybeate Springs, Salem and dozens (hundreds) of other old towns and communities that have already decayed into oblivion. Even most of the old pioneer roads still exist, but until some group goes out an marks their old routes, they also will slowly disappear! This same thing is happening all over the country, and one day it will be too late to act. The county courthouse has burned before, how soon before it burns again? Are copies of the documents available? Are they archived? Copies should be made and sent to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, or to the University of Mississippi or Both! Will it burn Tomorrow? Maybe it would be best for everyone to steal their own records since it seems we cannot count on the elected officials, nor the Historical Society nor anyone else in the county or state to! NO, I am not advocating theft!, just a possible answer to a problem that can, under the present conditions, lead to the destruction , or loss of the few original records that still exist. Ron Hughes

>Certainly the local historical >society has not had the ability nor the stroke to get anything done! Let's not include the local historical society in the blame for this. In truth there is no such thing now. The society appears to be Tommy Covington at the library and Tom Childers who now lives in TN. The movers and shakers of the society have either died or are no longer active. Tommy Covington has done a good job of preserving the history the society left behind and wants to see their publications online. But the society has no members and no publication. The society does have a bank account and money from CD sales goes into it and it is used to help perserve records. Tommy Covington has used money from this fund to make copies for me to transcribe to put online. I have donated to the fund to repay it and hopefully keep it going. The people charged with the responsibility for the records are the Circuit and Chancery Clerks. But there isn't much they can do without the funding. The clerks take care of the current records but don't have the funds nor the man power to do anything about the older records. The county is losing out on some tourists business from genealogists because you can not go there in a few days and find anything. I found a book that listed my ancestors in early court records. I had a page of packet numbers and went there and tried to find them but was unable to find a single one. The packet numbers skipped right over the only numbers I was interested in. I assume they were out of order or missing. There were records all over the place not filed and it was dusty and probably well over 100 degrees on the hot summer day I was there. I was given the key and was under no supervision and could have taken anything I wanted but couldn't find anything I was interested in. Of course I would have had copies made and returned the originals. I was told that some records have been microfilmed. I know the Mormons did some of it. Apparently the records were in much better shape around the late 70's and 80's when the society was at its peak. They did a wonderful job with books such as the death records which is online. The MSGenWeb page has preserved a lot of their work with the help of Tommy Covington and Tom Childers and I would like to do more of it if I had the material to work with, but living in MD it isn't easy to get to the library. I have gone to the library several times on vacation and gotten copies to transcribe for the web page but have just about run out of new old material now. Someone going to Ripley for a few days to do genealogy would spend their time better going to the library, not the third floor of the courthouse. It truly is a lot cause. In my opinion it is already to late. This has been discussed here before and nothing ever came of it. Unfortunately not many of my ancestors came from where I live here in MD. I went to the MD Archives one time and they have armed guards and check you when you leave. I didn't like it but fully understand the reason for it. I have done research in old newspapers in Ashland and also in Senatobia. It really ticked me off to find articles cut out of 100 year old newspapers rather than getting a 10 cent copy of the article. Not only is the article gone forever but whatever was on the other side of that page as well. Papers were out of order and it was hard to find the paper for a given date. A cousin went with me when I was in Senatobia. She said I was leaving with the papers in better shape than when I arrived. Instead of being in a pile I organized them by date in a neat stack when I put them back. It wasn't a difficult thing to do and I had to hunt for a given paper anyway. Hopefully it made it easier for the next person to find what they wanted. I don't think anything will happen unless and until locals get involved. They are taxpayers and voters and are there to do things themselves and to see that they are done. The clerks should be leaders in this and if not, vote someone into office who has an appreciation for the older records. I have never understood why the the clerks can't find someone who would be interested in coming in once a week or so to look up records for people who write for them and charge enough to pay for a reasonable amount for their time. It is my understanding that the clerks can't do record lookups themselves by law. So far as I know the only way to get a copy of a record is to go there and copy it yourself assuming you can find it. If anyone local reads this and would care to do this service I will put their name, address, phone number and fee on the Tippah County Confederate page and I am sure Melissa would put it on the MSGenWeb Tippah County page as well. I have had many messages asking how they can get copies of records. Aside from making a few bucks, you would have the appreciation of those of us who live far away and are unable to get there ourselves. Fred