CUSTOMER SUCCESS
Covington County undergoes Digital Transformation in Easterling’s first term as Chancery Clerk
This article originally appeared in The News Commercial.
Soon after taking office as Chancery Clerk in Covington County, Guy Easterling set his sights on preserving the rich history housed in the county’s record vault. The vault contains a large variety of historical records including land instruments, military discharge records, board of supervisor minutes, wills, newspapers, and many others.
While all of the documents are essential, land records are the most frequently accessed.
Land records are used for the searching, viewing, and purchasing of property in each Mississippi county. To date, these records are only accessible in Covington County through in-person interaction in the records vault during normal business hours.
The office’s vision is to provide online access to the records to ensure commerce associated with property records can flow seamlessly without visiting the courthouse. These records are stored in books that are aging and increasingly fragile. Digitization and online access protect the records from further degradation through constant handling by title researchers, attorneys, the general public, and staff members.
Providing online access to land records also protects the public and workers by reducing foot traffic to the courthouse. The importance of shifting to digital records was made abundantly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Easterling began the digitization process in the fall of 2021 with the initial goal of providing a fully digital index of land records back forty years. Forty years covers the vast majority of title research. This effort includes scanning all deeds and deeds of trust books back to 1982 and indexing the information from each instrument to make the documents easily searchable.
Digitization was completed over the summer by the records management firm, Revolution Data Systems. Easterling is now working with the county’s software provider, Delta Computer Systems, to bring the records online to allow public access.
“Land is permanent. So are the documents that record the ownership of all property in Covington County. We want to make sure that future generations have access to the records long after we are gone. We are working hard to ensure that all public records are accessible to everyone who needs them when they need them.”
With the most essential land records digitized, the office has shifted its focus to scanning its land collection back to book one. Once scanned, all land records dating back to Covington County’s inception in 1819 will be preserved for future generations.