Dear Kathy & List Members: I am rather upset to hear about these changes. I can understand the limitation of perhaps making COPIES of many records, since this does take up the time of the staff. Milwaukee Co., for example, will only allow a certain number of records to be pulled for copy each day and you are only allowed 4 hours at a time in the records area. However, Sauk Co. has the best research facilities that I have seen so far (and I've only been to about 7 or 8 counties). They have tons of room for people to move around back there - it's not like their folks don't have room to work around anyone else. Losing the ability to view the actual records will definitely hurt my search BADLY!!! I am researching the KIRNER's and the GRAF's in the county. As you can imagine, GRAF has several spellings, all of which they seem to have used at one time or another. Also, I am researching PRETSCH in Sauk. I only found the marriage certificate of my great-grandfather by chance since it had been so hideously misspelled in the actual document (please note that we did NOT attempt to correct any misspelling in the documents with the staff). Please be assured that I will follow up with the courthouse on this and if this is true and the ramifications are such that we will not have access to the actual document - there will be a letter writing campaign to the higher ups in the county or higher if necessary. My great-aunt used to be the Register of Deeds there and I'm sure she will direct me appropriately. I prefer to do my own research since I am the most familiar with the family. A remote connection may appear that someone outside the family would not find and therefore, more time would be lost or the information might never be found. I have been to the courthouse many times over the last year and am extremely familiar with their record keeping system. I don't understand why we won't have access to information which was previously available. This doesn't make sense. Jeannette Schwarz Slinger, WI jeannett@execpc.com Sauk County Historical Society wrote: > > FYI: > > Bad news for researchers. The Sauk County Register of Deeds office, > effective March 1, 2000, will no longer allow researchers to research their > own birth, marriage, death, and land records. Researchers will be permitted > to look at the indexes only and will only be allowed to see a limited number > of certificates due to a shortage of staff and other work the staff needs to > do. This limitation has come about due to some researchers who believe it > is acceptable to correct records when they see what they believe to be a > mistake. (The records are so marked up with "corrections" that is difficult > to tell what is original and what is not.) Rules that were set down by the > Register of Deeds office have not been followed. In order to preserve > records, these limitations will be in affect. > > It is sad to see that so few are going to affect so many. > > The Sauk County Historical Society will still be allowed to do research for > clients (a fee is involved). There are only two of us in the Society, > however, permitted to check records. The two of us are allowed due to the > Society's history with their office, our mission to preserve county history, > and we are currently funded by the county. Society members, however, will > have to follow the rules of every other researcher. If queries are sent > directly to the Register of Deeds office and require any research, they will > be referred to us. > > If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at schist@shopstop.net > > Kathy Waddell, Archivist