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Genealogical Society seeks special scanner

Genealogical Society says a high-tech scanner would help save documents

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Susan Olson, a member of the Webster County Genealogical Society, shows how delicate certain documents stored at the Fort Dodge Public Library can be. To help preserve them, the society would like to buy a special scanner. Susan Olson, a member of the Webster County Genealogical Society, shows how delicate certain documents can be Wednesday morning at the Fort Dodge Public Library.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Susan Olson, a member of the Webster County Genealogical Society, shows how delicate certain documents stored at the Fort Dodge Public Library can be. To help preserve them, the society would like to buy a special scanner. Susan Olson, a member of the Webster County Genealogical Society, shows how delicate certain documents can be Wednesday morning at the Fort Dodge Public Library. -Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Wally Whitehill, of Fort Dodge, takes notes on some newly found information about his family at the Webste County Genealogical Society's library inside the Fort Dodge Public Library Wedensday morning.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson Among the records at the Webster County Genealogical Society's library are U.S. Department of Transporation Railroad documents, shown here.When Wally Whitehill, of Fort Dodge, was looking for the obituary of a Civil War veteran who died in 1912, Susan M. Olson, president of the Webster County Genealogical Society, was there to help locate it for him.

Whitehill was at the Fort Dodge Public Library Wednesday morning to view the findings.

“My wife got me interested in genealogy,” Whitehill said. “I am just trying to do what I can as a way to pass down history.”

Whitehill said digging into the past can be a bit tricky, but having the Webster County Genealogical Society makes the process easier.

“It’s really nice when you are trying to find history and there’s a place like this to help find it for you,” Whitehill said.

Olson, a retired U.S. Army personnel administrator, and other members of the genealogical society spend their time updating online records of not just obituaries, but naturalization papers and probate records as well as newspapers.

But many of the documents are falling apart and break down a little more each time they are handled.

“A lot of the older documents we have are very fragile and when you pick them up, they literally fall apart in your hands,” Olson said.

To help solve that problem, the Webster County Genealogical Society is looking to purchase a new high-tech scanner.

The scanner will help preserve the documents and increase efficiency in updating online databases, according to Olson.

The scanner, a ScanSnap SV600, features one-button overhead scanning technology.

That will allow Olson and others using the scanner to copy books and other documents without putting additional stress on them.

“The scanner we will be getting scans from above with a light,” Olson said. “The light itself scans, so you don’t have to flip any of the books upside down.”

The scanner can also detect when pages are flipped, which speeds up the process.

The goal is to scan the items and put them back, so they don’t have to be handled again, Olson said.

Olson said everything that is copied is stored in indexes and can be retrieved at any time in the future.

“We want to get this stuff on the Internet so people know what we have,” Olson said.

Olson has started the process of applying for grants, but is still seeking donations for the new piece of equipment.

The Webster County Historical Society also plans to use the scanner and will contribute to the fund, Olson said.

“I would be happy if we could get it by late summer,” Olson said.

The estimated cost of the scanner is about $1,000.

The Webster County Genealogical Society is working on an extensive obituary project to index and catalog obituaries dating back to 2005.

Olson has also finished photographing headstones at Oakland Cemetery, a project she worked on throughout most of the summer in 2016.

She is working on editing and uploading those to findagrave.com, a website that allows people to locate famous graves or graves of loved ones.

To Olson, the work she puts in now is a sacrifice for the future.

“I think it’s important that we document family history,” Olson said. “All the headstones we do, I literally move the picture online so the person is never forgotten.”

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