Living in the County Archive: Children's Home Register of Admittance and Indentures

 

The Licking County Records and Archives is always thankful for all of our volunteers; the time they dedicate to make our collections more accessible for the public and preserve the history found in our records is greatly appreciated. This March, we are feeling especially lucky for Jon Emler, who has recently finished transcribing the Children’s Home Registers of Admittance and Indentures volumes. So for “Living in the County Archive” this month, we are featuring the Children’s Home Registers of Admittance and Indentures. We will examine what these records are, where they came from, and why they are important.


The Register of Admittance and Indentures for the Licking County Children’s Home would have been the tracking method for all children admitted in to the Children’s home. The volumes include the name of the child being admitted, their gender, race, age, place of birth, parents, if the parents are living or deceased, the date of their admittance, as well as the date of indenture and name of who they were indentured to. These records also make note of incidents and/or outcomes of the children. For example, the remarks might indicate if a child ran away, if they came of age and left the home on their own, if they were taken out of the home because of an indenture and what their indentured work was, or if they were returned and why. The remarks might also include if a child was seriously ill, hurt, or died and where they were buried. These records don’t go into great detail about each individual child, but they do at least give an indication of who they were, where they came from, and what became of them.



Transcribing these volumes has been a labor of love for Jon, who worked for roughly 2 years transcribing the, at times, near impossible to read handwriting of the early county records. By digitizing the information found in these registers, we now have a copy that is much easier to read, a copy that is far easier to search, and a back-up copy if something were to ever happen to the physical records in the event of fire or flood. By having this safe-holder in place, Jon’s work assures that no name of any child admitted to the Children’s Home will ever be forgotten.

If you would like to learn more about the Children’s Home Registers, or look through our digitized records, you can now view Children’s Home records meeting the 75-year rule (certain records 75years and older are open to the public per House Bill 139). To learn more about the Licking County Children’s Home and hear first-hand experiences from former residents, you can listen to interviews on our website at www.lickingcounty.gov under Digital Exhibits & Institution Histories/Oral History Project. Please feel free to stop by, or set an appointment by contacting 740-670-5121 or email at archives@lcounty.com

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