CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Government agency converts centuries of paper records to digital without missing a beat

Land record scanning and indexing for Clerks of Court and Recorders

Madison Parish Clerk of Court has worked tirelessly over the past few years to modernize and preserve its historical records.

About Madison Parish, Louisiana

Madison Parish, nestled along the northeastern border of Louisiana, is a community full of rich history and cultural heritage. Madison is considered a “row crop” parish and consistently ranks as the state’s top corn producer.

Back Story

Each parish in Louisiana elects a Clerk of Court to maintain and preserve the official public records of the parish. While most records are now created digitally in Madison Parish through their software provided by Cott Systems, the clerk’s office is still a safe keeper for millions of paper documents dating back to the origination of the Parish. This siloed approach slows down decision-making for researchers like title attorneys and genealogists and leaves the historic archive susceptible to natural disasters like fires, floods, and hurricanes.

A phased approach to digitizing government records

Tasked with marrying the paper records of the past to the digital records of the present and future, Clerk of Court Marion Hopkins formulated a plan to digitize Madison Parish’s records. Her first task was to prioritize which record collection to scan first. Like most government agencies, Madison Parish handles digitization projects in phases as funds become available.

Mrs. Hopkins elected to start by digitizing the most frequently accessed documents - land records (named mortgages and conveyances in Louisiana). To handle the large project, she commissioned Revolution Data Systems (RDS).

Land Records Scanning, Indexing and redaction

Our team scanned, indexed, and redacted a large portion of Madison Parish’s land record collection in phases over several years starting in 2015.

For each phase of the project:

RDS onsite scanning team set up scanners and technicians at the courthouse to scan the land record books.
Quality control was performed by our postproduction team to ensure the highest quality images were presented.
Next, land records were fully indexed by our data entry team. Full indexing means that we manually typed all index fields from the scanned images (Party Names, Recording Date, Document Type, partial or full Legal Description).
Once indexing was completed, we submitted an exception report to flag any illegible fields or missing data. These exceptions were corrected before data was entered into the system.
Sensitive information like social security and driver's license numbers were redacted from the images so that they could be safely accessed online.
A dedicated project manager worked directly with Madison Parish’s software vendor, Cott Systems, to format and upload the scanned images and associated metadata.

To date, we have scanned and indexed Conveyance records back to 1962 and Mortgage records back to 1982. This range covers a great deal of the records that are frequently accessed by attorneys and abstractors to perform title research.

Scanning and indexing of Marriage Records

Another important collection maintained by Clerks of Court in Louisiana are marriage licenses. Madison Parish once again commissioned RDS to handle the digitization of these records.

Our team transported the records to our secure document scanning facility for conversion.
All marriage records were scanned and formatted per software vendor specifications.
The marriage licenses were indexed by:
- Bride Name
- Groom Name
- Marriage Date
- Filing Date
- License Number
Marriage records and metadata were imported into Madison Parish’s Cott System.

Madison Parish now has its marriage collection scanned back to 1911. This digitization effort not only keeps the Parish’s records safe but also allows interested parties quick and easy access to the vital records.

“We started with a lofty goal of digitizing Madison Parish’s land and marriage collections. While it felt like a huge undertaking in the beginning, we chipped away at the project systematically over the past few years. Current and future generations will reap the benefits of having this information digitized and preserved for eternity.”

— Marion Hopkins, Clerk of Court, Madison Parish

Digitization plans for the future

Up next will be Civil, Criminal and Probate records. Once these records are scanned, indexed, redacted, and made publicly available, the Parish will continue to work further back in its land record collection.

Like most future-thinking government officials, Mrs. Hopkins would love to digitize her entire courthouse to provide the highest level of service and access to residents. The Parish will continue its phased approach until it is fully digital.

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