Texas County Clerks
For those of you who may not be absolutely sure if your County Clerk is getting one over on you or not, I've recently discovered this manual. It has served me well for the last couple days recouping some 15 volumes of commissioners' court minutes that were sent to a library one county over about 20 years ago.
It's my understanding that those volumes should be *home* within the next two weeks.
> For those of you who may not be absolutely sure if your County Clerk is getting one over on you or not, I've recently discovered this manual.
Wouldn't it be great if there were manuals like that for other government officials we have to deal with? The keeping of records is probably one of the most important functions of government and one of the most sadly undervalued in many counties.
I've tried to figure out why it is that one county with about 3,500 people for 900 square miles will have shipshape records and attentive staff in the clerk's office and another one not too far away will be an utter mess. The reality seems to be that once standards slip, it's hard to repair the damage. The deputies get accustomed to some laxity and then one of them gets elected clerk.
So keeping after the County Clerk is an important part of keeping a system functioning that we know is important.
One of my worst experiences
Probably one of the more memorable experiences I'v had with the records that the County Clerk is charged with maintaining in Texas was going to one rural county a few years ago to research a road whose public or private status was the subject of a lawsuit. I discovered that there was no index to the minutes of Commissioners Court and no one seemed particularly concerned but me.
If you've never had the experience of skimming all of the minutes for years, searching for an order establishing a particular road, you may not appreciate how wonderful good indices are.
One of my worst experiences
No INDEX?!?!?!:-O
Glad it was you instead of me, but still hate that it was anyone. How long did it take to find the road?
One of my worst experiences
> No INDEX?!?!?!:-O
>
> How long did it take to find the road?
Well, I made a few guesses as to the year, narrowed the search, and actually found the order establishing the road in under four hours. My clients thought it was wizardry and I'd didn't want to spoil the illusion.
Unfortunately, what I didn't know to look for was an order discontinuing the road only a few years later. :>
One of my worst experiences
Ouch, that sucks.
So, other than that, how is life going in the farthest reaches of Texas?
One of my worst experiences
> So, other than that, how is life going in the farthest reaches of Texas?
Actually, that was a great job. Ultimately, the dispute was resolved and my failure to find the order of discontinuance was probably for the best.
I find I'm working on a surprising number of lawsuits. This last weekend, I was out in a county about three hours West of Austin trying to identify where the original surveys had located lines and corners back in 1847 when the Comanche Indians were in possession of the land. That was one of the more interesting surveys I've worked on to date, for various reasons, not the least of which was that the bearing trees the 1847 surveyors marked were nearly all mesquites.
The photo below shows one of those bearing trees.
19" (basal dia.) Mesquite BT from 1847
Just to give you a flavor of the land, here's another shot taken on that ranch
Chapter 11, Page 7: "Official Pubic Records".
Huh. Hah hah. Heh. They said "Pubic".
GA County Clerks
Three clerk's office in GA come to mind.
At one in SW GA, I went into the record room and saw that one of the plat books was being used as a door stop. Another plat book was on a cabinet, open, with most of the pages scattered to the side.
At another SW GA small town court house, it's not unusual to find plats folded in the plat book, with many torn from the constant folding/unfolding.
At a small town courthouse in Middle GA, I was researching some deeds when the Clerk (she must have been 80-90yo) told me I had to leave during lunch, because they locked up and left during lunch. The entire courthouse closed from 12noon-1pm for lunch. 😐
GA County Clerks
I thought that lunch time closing was the new norm, at least it is has become a terrible standard in NE Texas.
They do not understand that lunch time is when a surveyor comes in from the field to find that missing description and the fact that they are closed will burn away a good part of the rest of the day when we could be out there finishing our survey:-S
