PORT ANGELES – They made it to the church on time, and soon they may make it onto the World Wide Web. Marriage licenses and applications from couples who wed since the 1860s may be scanned, indexed and made available online if the Clallam County auditor receives part of a nearly $1 million state grant.
The work would total 54,000 applications and corresponding licenses, a total of 108,000 yellowing, fragile documents reposing in Auditor Patty Rosand’s vault.
Rosand told county commissioners Monday that Washington State Archives will award $990,000 in competitive grants for counties and communities to put documents into digital form.
The documents would become available on Clallam County’s Web site, www.clallam.net, and on the digital state archives at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, www.secstate.wa.gov/archives.
The original records would be sent to the state archives in Bellingham. They currently are kept in the Clallam County Courthouse.
