Salt Lake County has partnered with the Genealogical Society of Utah to make digital copies of more than 100,000 of the county's oldest birth and death records.
The information - it took two months to burn onto DVD - now is available for armchair historians through county offices. In about a year, it will be on the Web.
"They're right in our backyard," county records manager Terry Ellis said about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Genealogical Society. "It was a good opportunity."
Ellis said the project could have cost taxpayers $1 per image but that the Genealogical Society did the work for free.
Death records from 1847-1949 were digitized along with birth records dating back to 1890.
Ellis said county officials were told about a year ago the books were falling apart.
"It was a really good cooperative venture," she said.
Anyone interested in checking the pioneer records can contact the county's archives office at 801-468-2330.
- Derek P. Jensen
