DARLINGTON — The Lafayette County Historical and Genealogy Society (LCHGS) made plans to digitize, or scan, historic documents from townships throughout the county in order to preserve the records and make them available to researchers of history and genealogy in the county. 

However, when the work began on the first set of records, staff discovered that the computers were insufficient to the task. The older computers served well for many years, but the creation and storage of digital images requires faster hard drives and additional memory. Analysis of the computers led to a list of necessary upgrades that could be addressed within the regular operating budget of the society. But to safely and securely store the image files the society also needed a large “file server,” costing $800.00.

Having recently exhausted both the society budget and current grant funding opportunities, they approached the Weigel Strong Foundation for assistance.  Fortunately, Weigel Strong could provide the needed funding. The equipment has been purchased and will be installed by Albert Nemec, a professional computer specialist that has installed similar computer upgrades in his spare time for other genealogy societies.

The society will be scanning township records that are sometimes discarded or destroyed when townships run out of storage space. Once they have the digital files preserved, the physical records will be donated to the State of Wisconsin Historical Society for preservation.

The township records project brought the technical needs to light. But the equipment will also be able to handle future projects including scanning of an extensive negative images collection and improve efficient operation of the museum’s cataloging software.

Anyone interested in the work of LCHGS is encouraged to call the museum at 608-776-8340 for more information.