Land records dating back to Lawrence County’s founding now online for public

People can now research Lawrence County’s entire history of official land records from anywhere with Internet access.
Recorder Pam Robertson and her staff have completed a massive project with Sutterfield Technologies to digitize her office’s land records back to the county’s founding in 1845. At the same time, Robertson moved to a new Missouri-based software provider, iCounty Technologies, to provide online access to these and other records.
Visitors who follow the link on the recorder’s web page already could search land records from 1992 forward. But now they will also be able to research back to 1845.
This will make Lawrence County one of only a handful of counties in the state with its entire history of land records available online.
Free access is provided for the indexes, so researchers can find out if there are documents related to their subject. They can then determine if they would like to use the subscription service to view and download the document itself; visit the courthouse to view the document in person; or order a copy to be mailed or e-mailed to them.
Robertson said she was pleased not only about being able to provide the additional access – but because the digitization assures the information on those documents is preserved.
Robertson commended Timothy Sutterfield and the staff at Sutterfield Technologies for their painstaking work to create high quality images when the source material allowed.
To access the information, go to the Recorder of Deeds’ page at lawrencecountymo.org and click on “Online Record Search.” As a “guest,” you do not need to enter a password; just click “login.” From the index page, you can determine the book number and page number. With that information, you can access the original books in person in the Recorder of Deeds’ office in the Historic Courthouse; purchase a subscription to access it online; or order a copy to be mailed or e-mailed to you by calling the Recorder’s office at 417-466-2670.
Robertson said subscriptions currently are geared to commercial users and are for the month or year; but she is working with her service provider in hopes of eventually providing one-day subscriptions for occasional users.