InsideLouisville, where we introduce you to the people, places and things that make up Kentucky's largest city.

This week, we take you inside the Jefferson County Clerk's office.

Now, you may know the county Clerk's office is responsible for elections, voter registration, even deeds, vehicle registration.

Marriage licenses are all a part of this county office.

But have you ever thought about this?

All of those documents submitted to your county clerk's office are actually documenting your history and the history of Louisville.

Jefferson County Clerk David Yates was appointed to the position by Mayor Craig Greenberg after the death of longtime County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw.

While in office, Clerk Yates served as Kentucky State Senator prior to his appointment, we sat down with him to talk about the importance of elections, but also how a big part of the job is preserving history and now a partnership with the Filson Historical Society.

>> If you really think about it, and we talk about patriotism and our democracy, our elections are the cornerstone.

We really are.

And right now, unfortunately, there is misinformation and falsehoods that can travel faster than the truth.

And so it's so important for people they can trust and believe in, to give them the truth, to lay it out there and so they can verify to you, lay it.

And so that's why each part of the process we're recording or making sure you're seeing that we have six signatures sign off on as the the chain of custody of the voting machines and everything else.

But it's in the schools.

I just, I feel like maybe there's this disconnect with, with how important civics are.

And so years ago, back until 1998, we would have a civics and voting ambassadors, what they would be people out in the community.

And so one of the first things I did here is I brought it back.

Anyone who is going to be 18 years old before the general election can register to vote so that even if they're 17 during the primary process, they can participate.

And so a lot of them, they don't know that.

And then it also shows how important the process is.

And so us going into different schools and colleges and really community centers, wherever it is, and just talking about how important their vote is, getting registered to vote voting, but also being educated on it.

And the other part is we try to make you have your sample ballots, all that's available on our website.

You can just get on to Louisvillevotes.org or Jefferson County clerk.org.

There's lots of pathways, but we want you to be informed.

>> What are some of those things that you worked on as part of the state Senate that you're now seeing happening on the ground in the clerk's office?

>> Digitalization.

So I think a lot of people who have had dealings with the clerk's office, they'll know Cave is the system that actually processes it.

The state put that together.

It got turned out way before it was ready.

So as a state senator, long before my role, I would get calls and complaints about this whole system and, and some of the problems.

And so we got to kind of work behind the scenes and never, never in the grass, right?

Never down in the weeds.

And so we were really high level, but just thinking, why can't they figure this out?

Why can't they do this?

Well, now I know in this role and but it's such an advantage for me.

And I'm lucky that I got to be able to be on both sides, not only writing the legislation, working on it.

Digitalization, improved technology, the communications actually going in.

And so when your car title, instead of having your paper car title, now you can you have a digital title which will be implemented, which can help reduce fraud.

Now you can request the paper because there's some people that want to have that hand, but but that way it'll be there digitally.

So you're not having to go through all the steps is one example.

And right now there was a a Senate 139 Senate Bill.

139 even though I was the clerk's office, I was down there quite a bit talking to my colleagues about what works and what doesn't work.

Unfortunately, they did not listen to me on everything we wanted, but that's part of politics.

So there were some things that we weren't happy with, but there were some positives as well.

>> The county clerk's office.

Of course, the main responsibility is elections and but you all do a lot more than that.

>> Every single document that you have that's important to you that's filed, is filed with our office.

We're the most connected place in government that the individual constituent will have.

So whether it is your marriage license to your business filing to now, you know, we run and have to do the property tax collections on there.

It's through our office.

And so my job is not only to make sure that those are properly documented and put in place, but also preserved well.

>> So that leads to the partnership.

Now, you all have with the Filson to preserve some of those records.

>> That's right.

And so as our office has to operate within a budget.

But it was very once I saw the records, and this isn't just records for Jefferson County.

In fact, Jefferson County really was one of.

There was 35 counties that belonged to us at one point.

But these records were important to not just Kentucky, but to our nation.

And it was too big to try to do ourselves.

We couldn't.

And so for a lot of years, a lot of clerks just said, well, it's too big of a project.

I don't believe that.

So I reached out to my local friends and colleagues at the local Metro council, to our mayor, to our state Senate, and then to a congressional leadership in in the Senate and the legislature.

And, you know, it's amazing how certain times we can all come together.

Everybody forgot about the partizan politics or some of that stuff, you see.

And so I got to lead the fight.

But I can tell you, there's a lot of people who came and said, yes, we got to preserve these.

It's time.

Now's the time.

And so I reached out to the Filson.

And the Filson has been proven to be able to properly preserve an artifact.

These.

And they've done that before.

And we came in, we went in the cave, we found what we could.

And it's just like we just kept pulling the string and more and more and more.

And so now we're at the place where we're, we have a contract with them as a partnership so that we will finally properly preserve these historical documents that have been in Jefferson County's keeping.

And.

And we have some good news.

There is a there were some tears and fear when we found a lot of them worried that they were completely destroyed and.

But in all their expertise, they're telling me good news.

They think that almost everything will be able to be preserved.

Wow.

And then.

So once we get it properly preserved.

I want to make it accessible to everyone.

So, you know, there's families that are looking at their history.

So you look at, you know, some records back from 1790 or, you know, where maybe from property trade to slave trade to different families that had been from here and moved on.

But once I have all that properly preserved, the next step would be working in partnership to make sure it's accessible digitally so that people can get online and look at their history and, and understand.

And so because I believe that knowing our history helps us kind of move forward in our future.

>> Now for a closer look at that partnership, we welcome the president and CEO of the Filson Historical Society.

Patrick Lewis, thanks so much for being here.

>> Really glad to be here again.

>> This is a really interesting aspect.

I thought of the county clerk's office getting involved with finding these documents.

So explain a little bit more about how they were discovered, where they're discovered.

Yeah, the mega cavern.

>> In the mega cavern.

Yes, absolutely.

So, you know, one of the roles that that all county clerks in Kentucky play is maintaining these historical records that go back to the formation of the county.

In the case of Jefferson, that's all the way back into the 1780s, being one of the original counties in Kentucky.

And so when he came into office, Clark Yates was really interested in tipped off to to some of the work that's going on in other counties with these historical records.

So Fayette County has had a project for a couple of years that's going back through some of these historical records and pulling out really incredible stories from their early history in there.

And so he comes back to the office and says, these are great.

Where are they?

And so that was a question that that led to some interesting answers, you know, and so then pretty soon after that, his team reached out to us at the Filson again, as, as a group that is used to working with and preserving historic records and said, help us understand what, what these other counties are doing, what we might be able to do, and help make some recommendations on how we should preserve and share these with the community, because it's one thing to hold on to them for a few hundred years, but you want people to interact with those and think about that aspect of the clerk's office as vital as elections and licensing and all the other things that happen.

>> Yeah, it's kind of an interesting aspect you don't think about when you're filing that marriage license or you have to register your car, that that's actually contributing to history, right?

The history of our city and county.

So, so explain, let's give, give everybody an overview of the Filson Historical Society.

For those who don't know, what do you all do?

>> A little bit of everything.

So the Filson has been a Louisville institution since 1884.

We were founded to preserve and share the history of this city, to make sure that Louisville and Kentucky were at the forefront of academic research and scholarship all across the country.

So we've been publishing books and writing historical papers, facilitating research since that time.

You know, now we've got our headquarters location.

Our research library is down in Old Louisville on Third and Ormsby.

We host over 50 public lectures and events a year, some of them downtown, most of them at our site, bringing in authors from all over the country, sometimes all over the world, to come talk about the latest research in US and Kentucky history really working proactively, especially when we can find great community partners like the clerk's office to, to spread that that awareness and appreciation of Kentucky history so that we can build ultimately a more productive future for ourselves.

>> Yeah, it really is incredible, the work that you all do.

And he talked a lot about, too, how the clerk's office is, you know, trying to adapt to all this new technology and digitizing.

And I know that's an important part of what you all are doing, too.

How has technology changed how you all function?

>> It's been it's been really critical.

And especially, of course, every historical institution was sort of thrown into warp speed with their digital footprint.

If they weren't moving in that direction by the pandemic.

And when folks were one, unable to come out and come and do physical research in person at a library, but two got really interested in family stories, as they might have been rooting through an attic or a basement and doing some reorganization, and they found some really incredible things, and that made them want to go and learn more.

So we saw a really big spike in interest in family history and local history and histories of, of neighborhoods, of houses.

And so we've been really gratified to see that that interest sustain after folks have come back in to in-person research.

But that also means that we've been able to serve folks digitally as well.

And so that has meant for us not only in the sort of large scale digitization and the scanning of historic documents, for example, or photos and things like that that a lot of people think of.

First and foremost, it's about finding Aids and, and online catalogs that allow folks to go through our library catalog to go through our manuscript collections of original, you know, letters, diaries, business records, governmental records in the case that we're talking about with the clerk's office, museum objects, all of those things.

We want people to be able to discover what we do have so that they can know to ask us to come in and see that in person, or to send them digital images or scans or whatever that is, if they're here in Louisville or if they're, quite frankly, across the country as well.

So that that off site research for us has spiked and surpassed our in-person research.

And that's fantastic because that's just extending our reach across the country.

>> Yeah.

And I feel like there's a another renewed interest, sort of with the 250th anniversary of our country.

Absolutely.

People are interested in our history.

>> Yes.

No, they really are.

And that's been fantastic.

And the way I think also that our state commission, the way that our our Louisville Metro Commission has framed those commemorations, you know, obviously, you know, focusing on the events in the 1770s around the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but really thinking across time about how those values that are enshrined in those founding documents life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, right, are carried forward and lived and renewed in every generation.

I think that's a really compelling message, especially to young people who want to get involved in their community, who are sort of learning and growing into what their citizenship means.

I think that's a really great way of saying this story is not over, and you're a part of it too.

>> Yeah, that's so cool.

And it is so interesting for people to have a place or a resource where they can research their particular family genealogy.

And that is part of what the discovery of these documents with the county clerk's office are doing, allowing people who may not have had that right prior to be able to do it.

So tell me about some of the things that that are in this treasure trove in the mega cavern and what you've been able to find.

>> I think you're you're exactly right on that.

You know, these types of governmental records are the ways that every family can tell their story and connect back in here.

Even looking back into, for example, the era of enslavement, when African American families are sort of are not able to participate as citizens in the life of government.

The the initial work that we've done so far has shown that these folks are appearing all over the place.

And there are again, when you look at these documents in the aggregate and you can overlay some of the digital tools that we now have available to us to build some really sophisticated databases that look for black families and stories across time, and sort of allow people to piece together these little scraps of information that might be scattered over years of, of deeds or wills or marriage records or whatever the case may be.

I think there are also really compelling women's history stories here, business history and property transactions.

Of course, marriages obviously are really fascinating.

So what we have decided to work with in this initial phase in cooperation with the county clerk's office, are things that are actually in their possession.

So those are either things that are stored down at the mega Cavern or things that are in storage facilities that the clerk's office operates at.

A really fascinating trip out there to look at some, some marriage and deed books.

And there are all the voting machines that that get, you know, farmed out to your, your local precinct in there.

And it was a really powerful way of saying that, that the past and the present are united here in this one office.

So we're going to work with those things that the clerk's office has continued possession of.

And that is primarily deeds, wills and marriage records initially.

And then a second phase that will probably start sometime next year once we think we've gotten through a lot of those initial documents, is to look a little bit more broadly and find things that had been produced by the county clerk's office historically, but that might not be in their possession today.

So those are things that might be at Metro Archives.

Those are things that are at the Filson.

Those are things that might have gotten shipped off to Frankfort, to the historical Society, or to the state archives at Cdla.

So that'll be a much broader search and sort of working with those different archival repositories to say, do you have any other Jefferson County court records that we might want to bring back and try and incorporate into whatever system we've we've built to allow people to search and engage with those?

>> Yeah.

I mean, it is a process.

So explain how that actually physically works.

You see, you find this deed book and then what's the process of digitizing and then making it available?

>> Yeah, we're going to have to, to move in a couple of different paths at the same time.

And one of those is physical preservation of the original material itself.

So a lot of these records imagine big old ledger books that are huge and, you know, three, four inches thick and just absolutely, you know, cramming in years worth of, of documentary material.

So we're going to do some physical assessments of those and make sure that they're in good shape.

If there are some that need, particularly the thing we're looking out for is mold remediation.

That's the that's the biggest problem with, with any historic document, you know, fortunately, historic paper from the 18th and 19th centuries, generally pretty resilient stuff.

It's got a high rag content, a lot of linen and cotton that's, that's mixed in there with those wood fibers.

So that stuff is, is pretty good.

As long as you can keep it clean.

We're going to look at binding and things like that.

And, and then if we there are some things that we identify that need to go out for, for remediation, conservation.

We'll get those taken care of and make sure that they're fine.

Then fortunately, we we stand on decades of, of work with these records before.

So in the mid 20th century, the majority of the records that we'll be working with initially were microfilmed.

And so we've got those good reels of microfilm that allow us at least black and white images, which is, is good enough to start working from.

And then we're working with and we've been working with the clerk's office and, and familysearch.org, which is an online accessible genealogy website, free resources for anybody to log in and use to, to digitize that microfilm and upload it into their system.

And that's particularly exciting because they are really on the forefront of technology in family history research.

So there are already some of those collections that have AI handwriting tools that are, you know, reading that, that cursive, that manuscript handwriting and, and producing transcriptions.

Now, is it perfect?

No.

Absolutely not.

Because spelling in the, in the 18th and 19th centuries is, is creative and idiosyncratic.

And there are slips of the pen and all kinds of things like that.

But is it a whole lot better than starting from scratch?

Yes, absolutely.

Particularly in a world where increasingly we're seeing, you know, as folks, fewer and fewer folks are learning and using that cursive in their daily life, that skill is going away.

And so especially being able to do that quickly as you're trying to flip through pages and look for your particular ancestor or a name, even if you've got a good index to work from, then having those AI tools as a jumpstart is going to be really useful.

One of the other things that we're doing is cross-referencing the documents that are in the clerk's office and possession that we're working with, with other materials that the Filson has.

So we hold the papers of a title company from the late 19th century that was doing what a contemporary title company does, and making sure that any real estate transaction you've got a clean title to.

This was a huge problem in early Kentucky because there were so many different overlapping surveys and land grants, and land title is an absolute nightmare.

But they went through and if they were working on any cases, they would go and research the title history of given pieces of property, sometimes recording unrecorded deeds.

So transactions that were agreed to and signed for, but that didn't make it into the clerk's books.

So there's a mix there of things that we will have a copy of in a record that we're working with from the clerk's office, and maybe something that's not that pertains to the same piece of property, the same family, the same case.

So that's, again, just allowing us to extend those networks out a little bit more and throw out more names and more opportunities for a contemporary louisvillian or somebody who's not even, you know, whose family was from here.

And they're on the other side of the country by now, an opportunity to, to find that.

>> Yeah, it's, it's like piecing together a puzzle.

Yes.

So I know you all have already discovered some really fascinating stories.

What are some of the ones that stand out to you?

>> I think, you know, some of the things that we've really been excited to see are, again, these folks whose stories sort of don't make it into the headlines a lot of times, these sort of little fabrics of everyday life.

We've been focusing mostly on deed books so far in our initial searches.

And there have been some really intriguing, you know, the nuances, particularly of, of women, of free people of color who are sort of navigating the, the sidelines of the legal and economic worlds here, who are not given full legal rights under the the government at the time, and yet who are still acting, who are still owning businesses, who are still buying and selling property.

And that that demonstrates these these cultures of resilience that exist even within times of legal oppression.

And so those stories are going to be particularly important for us.

You know, even reflecting valuable, invaluable information about enslaved families in particular.

So we've seen a number of instances of, of free family members buying wives, buying children, buying nieces and nephews out of slavery.

Right?

You think about the really complex mental gymnastics that has to happen there to, to, to, to participate in the commodification of your child, right?

And to, to agree to a value for them with their owner.

And, and then oftentimes, one of the things that we're, we're seeing that that causes those transactions to be entered into a deed book is if they, they borrow money or they borrow against a property to, to help pay for the purchase price of those family members and buy them out of slavery.

You think about the, the precarity there of, of folks who are oftentimes day laborers.

They're working on the wharves here on the riverfront, you know, very, very low wages, but taking on huge sums of, of debt, three, four, $500 in, in 18, you know, 30s, 40s money, right, are huge sums.

And taking on that risk in order to preserve family.

And it's understandable why they do so.

Those stories are absolutely invaluable to help piece together these, these family networks, so that as we start to see in the after the Civil War, after emancipation in the 1870s, when when black households are listed now for the first time in the census and you see these these family groups, you know, mother and father, children, maybe some extended family, there's a grandmother in there.

You can be looking for those clusters of names back in the 1850s, in the 1840s.

And that gets you a generation farther back.

You know, for a lot of African American genealogists, there's there is a wall.

Yeah.

In 1865.

And it's really hard to get past there.

And what these records are going to do is, is for tens of thousands of, of contemporary louisvillians today, they're going to be able to, to move backwards in time and find those family members names.

>> Wow.

So explain to the importance of knowing that history.

How does that make a difference in for families or businesses or cities today?

>> Absolutely.

I feel like knowing your history in in any sense, and I think it works on the individual level as well as on the community level.

Exactly as you say, it gives you roots and grounding and stake, right?

It gives you a reason to, to, to work for the betterment of this place, right?

We live in, in a contemporary American society.

And this, this arguably has been the case since the very frontier era, right?

If you don't like things where you are, you can always move somewhere else.

That's why people come to Kentucky from Virginia and Maryland or Pennsylvania, wherever they come from.

But I think understanding this, this deep rootedness that that I think so many Kentuckians feel and share, it's sort of part of, of what makes us an international destination.

People want to come and participate in that.

I feel like being able to trace your story back in time into the 19th century gives you a grounding and a voice and empowerment, right?

A sense of, of deep connection and a justification for speaking up.

Even if you don't feel like that, that is your is perhaps your place in the past or now.

Now we have these concrete examples of all of these people working within and around and alongside the legal system to, to live and thrive and build family and community.

And I think that's really inspirational.

And that's the spirit we need to propel us into whatever Kentucky's next chapter is.

>> You can watch and share this episode anytime.

It's online at ket.org/insidelouisville.

And you can learn more about this project, our guests, and more.

When you follow us on social media, you can find us on Instagram at KETinLOU.

Thanks for spending a little time getting to know Louisville.

I hope we'll see you here next time.

Until then, make it a great week.