Licking County Records & Archives Blog

  Record of the Month! For the months of August through November we are featuring the first two of four pop-up exhibit panels from the National Archives exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. The exhibit Rightfully Hers walks through the ratification of the 19 th Amendment, how women fought and won their right to vote and the legacy of the Women’s Movement. In addition to creating and distributing the exhibit panels displayed here, the National Archives created a digital exhibit with more resources and teaching tools available through the following link: ( https://museum.archives.gov/rightfully-hers ). When the Constitution became the framework of American’s government on June 21, 1788, it left voting eligibility requirements up to each state. As a result of state determined suffrage, there were wide inconsistencies on who could vote and what they could vote on. A total of 15 states had granted some form of suffrage for women by the beginning of 1920. However, mi...

Record of the Month! Game Design Challenge Update: Although we didn’t receive any entries for the Game Design Challenge from our April Record Feature, we do have 3 new versions of Bingo to share! All materials are available through the Student Resources page of the Archives website. Each version of Bingo has 20 unique printable cards and caller’s cards.   Burr Wilson v Philip Miller circa 1893; The above file contains witness testimony and bone fragments, filed in 1896.  For the month of June we are featuring an unusual 1893 court file that was unearthed during the 2019 Licking County OHRAB project. While it is not out of the ordinary for court records to include evidence as part of the case file, the evidence submitted in 1896 that was attached to this civil dispute was bone-chilling. In August of 1893 Burr Wilson sued Philip Miller for damages in the amount of $150 ($4,273 in today’s money) for the loss of his horse, Jack, due to an incident involving ano...

Record of the Month! April Monthly Feature Update: Game Design Challenge deadline extended to June 5 ! The challenge rules remain the same. Please send all entries to archives@lcounty.com with the subject line Activity Challenge Attn: M Shield, and don’t forget to include your name in the email. Winners will be announced the second week of June. For the month of May we are featuring our digital exhibit on the history of the Licking County Tuberculosis Sanatorium and its impact. The link to the exhibit is below: https://apps.lcounty.com/records-and-archives/exhibits/ The exhibit was created by Mary McKinley in 2018, using a range of materials from our collection, as well as from the Licking County Health Department, who took over Tuberculosis Sanatorium building after it closed. The exhibit examines what life was like in Licking County for those affected by Tuberculosis (TB) before and after the sanatorium was built and the compelling story of how women and other...

Record of the Month! Our monthly features usually focus on interesting records or stories from the Licking County Records & Archives collections, but with the current health situation we’d like to do something a little different for April. We sincerely hope everyone is staying safe and keeping others safe by adhering to the social distancing guidelines and the shelter-in-place order. Staying active while staying inside can be difficult, so for the month of April we’re featuring our Student Resources webpage. The Student Resources webpage has a few fun archival themed games and activities! (Link below) We’ve just added a new game-Licking County Genealogy Clue, a different take on the classic Who Done It board game. https://lickingcounty.gov/depts/records_n_archives/student_resources.htm Additionally, we’d like to challenge everyone to design their own puzzles and games. Up to four winners will be selected to have their creations featured on our website! ...

Record of the Month! This month we are featuring a reproduction of a record that is part of our naturalization collection, which lists sovereignties and their rulers circa 1936. Naturalization is the legal process immigrants go through to become citizens of the United States. The policies surrounding immigration and naturalization have always been controversial and divisive. Although, it is important to note that naturalization has always been a choice and not a requirement to live in the United States. The first naturalization law was passed in 1790, requiring two years of residency for naturalization. As the United States continued to grow through the 19 th Century, policies surrounding naturalization became more complex due to rising number of immigrants choosing to become U.S. citizens.   It was during the latter half of the 19 th century that millions of Italian, Russian, Irish, Polish, Slavic, Asian, and Jewish immigrants flocked to the United States. ...

Record of the Month! To celebrate Valentine’s Day, for the month of February we are featuring a volume of Marriage Records dated 1808-1828. In the early hours of April 3, 1875, the Licking County Courthouse was reduced to a smoldering ruin as a result of a fire. Sadly, the fire destroyed an estimated 2,500 boxes of early county and Probate Court records. The marriage records displayed here are among the handful of Probate Court records that were recovered. Despite having well over 500 marriage records bound in this volume, it is only a fraction of the number of marriage records that were lost. Although the 1875 fire has become a frustrating roadblock for genealogical researchers across the country, there is still hope. It is sometimes possible to unearth marital relationships through other records found at the Licking County Records & Archives Center. For example Law Record and Chancery Record volumes will list various genealogical relationships depending o...

A Festive Feature! Original Red Lens used during the 1948-1949 Courthouse Holiday Lighting  For the month of December we are featuring an artifact from the first Courthouse Holiday Lighting. The red lens displayed here was used to add a colorful flare along with large green lenses to the 1948 Courthouse lighting design. Today a plethora of shades of red and green can be found around the Courthouse and almost everywhere as a festive expression of the winter holidays. But where did the combination of red and green actually come from? The use of red and green to celebrate during the winter months actual has ancient roots that go back centuries before the birth of Christianity and the other modern winter holidays celebrated today. The use of red and green can be traced back to the Celtic celebrations of the Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) that started to emerge sometime in the 3 rd Century B.C.E. The keepers of the Celtic Winter Solstice traditions were the Dr...