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Probate Court joins Clerk of Court in pulling records from Archives

web posted February 26, 2007
COUNTY – The Edgefield County Probate Court is following the lead of the Clerk of Court’s Office by retrieving thousands of records presently stored in the County Archives. Clerk of Court Shirley Newby is bringing almost 15,000 files from the Archives back to her office at a cost of $7,677.61. Probate Judge Bobby Peeler said his office would retrieve eleven more years of estate records from the Archives and place them in his office. No estimated cost of that transfer was provided.

Mrs. Newby said, at the February 6 County Council meeting, bringing the records back to her office was needed in order to make the records available to the general public. Judge Peeler said he too is reacting to concerns raised by title searchers, attorneys, and real estate brokers.

Having the records spread out over at least three offices makes tracing titles, death, and estate records, as well as marriage licenses difficult for lawyers and researchers. Judge Peeler said his Office would be retrieving Conservator and Guardianship files in the near future. Peeler said many of the records his office is retrieving were placed in the archives when his office oversaw the facility. The records were placed in the facility for temporarily for storage purposes.

Judge Peeler said the County Archives was intended to be a “records depository” and that keeping the original records and microfilm or copies in the same place could spell disaster in the event of fire or other destructive forces. The vault the records are kept in was intended to remain closed unless justifiably required to be opened. It is specially designed to keep the records, some dating back to the 1700’s, at a constant temperature and humidity to preserve the fragile documents and books.

Keeping the vault locked could have prevented the theft of the prized book containing the first five years of General Session’s Court in Edgefield County dating back to 1785 through 1790. It disappeared from the County Archives in September of last year but was not reported missing until October. The handwritten records were valued between $30,000 and $50,000.

Judge Peeler said there are two reasons Edgefield County has such historical records available; first is that Gen. Sherman did not come through Edgefield during the burning of the South during the War between the States and, two, because the records are mandated by law to be retained.

All original records are required under South Carolina law to remain in the Office they are created or in a county maintained facility. No one, Judge Peeler said, is to take any original record or book out of a county office.
 
 
 

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