Over the past three years efforts have ramped up in Danbury to preserve historic land records and the Town Clerk's office has been able to improve electronic accessibility. Town Clerk Jan Giegler says they've been working to make the records accessible to the public, without them having to go to City Hall. Title searchers, attorneys, banks and residents currently have online access to the land record index through the City's website, but not the actual documents referenced.
More than $130,000 from the Historic Document Reserve Account will be used to complete the redaction of all Social Security numbers. Giegler says, right now, it's over 2 million pages that have to be scanned and redacted. In 1936, Social Security numbers were added to certain documents, but blossomed when mortgages and IRS liens added them in the 80s. Even death certificates include the sensitive information.
The office has already digitized records dating back to 1777 and they encourage people to go online instead of having to use the books in order to protect the historical documents.
Documents used to be $1 per page, and a check is needed, because the office doesn't have a credit card system. The allocation will leave the fund with just about $2,000. The office is now charging $2 dollars per page, which will replenish the fund.
