Some deeds and mortgage indexes also have been digitized.

But Zimmerman said many of the older deeds, written in colored ink on colored, now brittle paper, are too fragile to scan without the help of archiving professionals.

According to Zimmerman, the records escaped destruction in 1936 when they were rushed from the first to the second floor of the courthouse while floodwaters rose from the Susquehanna River.

Frederick Reed, Zimmerman’s predecessor, often came to the courthouse after heavy rains to sweep the water out of the basement to keep it from destroying the documents stored there.

Recent drainage upgrades have solved that problem, Zimmerman said, and she and her staff have done their best to protect the documents by asking those who handle them to return them in their found state to their original location.

“It’s a wealth of information that deserves better than this,” Zimmerman said.

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