Clarke County Democrat

Treasures in the basement






Clarke County Archivist Louise Andrews holds copy of ‘The Woods of Barlow Bend.’ See more on it below and more on Andrews and the archives at right.

Clarke County Archivist Louise Andrews holds copy of ‘The Woods of Barlow Bend.’ See more on it below and more on Andrews and the archives at right.

Court records bound in old brown covers date back to the 1820s. Walls of antique metal file cabinets hold loose papers from court proceedings.

Deeds, marriage licenses and other records are located in the probate judge’s vault on the main floor of the Clarke County Courthouse and are overseen by the probate judge and the judge’s staff.

These records are in a basement room, overseen by a watchful — and often helpful — Louise Andrews who is from Fulton.

For years, the room was a junk room for the rest of the courthouse with the old records pushed into corners behind broken office furniture and other discards. Leaky overhead water pipes ruined a lot of the records and prompted commissioners to make renovations to better preserve the records.

Andrews was hired about four years ago to oversee the records and to assist anyone who needs help. She’s organized the old records and assists county officials and citizens alike.

Tuesday, she said she had just finished researching a matter for Circuit Clerk Summer Scruggs. She’s also helped citizens with a variety of issues.

The old records are mostly civil and criminal circuit court records, land disputes, divorces and other court related cases.

While Andrews doesn’t do genealogy work per se, she has helped people researching their family trees who wanted to know if greatgrandpa might have been tried for murder.

That’s how she came to know Jodie Cain Smith and assist her with research she used in writing a novel based on her family, “The Woods of Barlow Bend.”

She’s helped others too. One case that comes to mind was an individual who was having disputes over land with other family members. They had thought their parents had divorced but she researched the records and found that while a property division was talked, the couple reconciled and the divorce never went through.

“The man was very happy to learn that,” Andrews related, saying it may have settled the dispute in his favor.

She enjoys reading the records from the 1800s. “You have cases of a cow or horse being stolen with values of $5.” The old records are very descriptive with specifics regarding divorces. “Now people can divorce for no reason but back then you had to have a reason” and that reason was also specified in detail.

The old criminal court records will detail punishments right down to hanging guilty parties in front of the old county jail.

The old records were all recorded in a handwritten script that is sometimes hard to read. Andrews said you can’t read it for long periods of time without it starting to blur!

The hours for the basement archives room have been cut in recent years and Andrews is worried they may be cut more. She said she is appreciative of the job and of being able to assist people.

The archives room is open 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday.


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