Six General Areas of Records Filmed

• Local County Permanent Records
• County Loose Records Special Projects
• TSLA Manuscript Collections
• State Agency Record Groups
• Collections on loan for microfilming
• Newspapers

Archival Microfilm Characteristics

• Meets all ANSI/AIIM Standards
• Silver Gelatin camera film (5 mil thickness)
• Silver Duplicating film copies
• Resolution charts & descriptive targets are used
• Best chemical processing available
• Thorough inspection of images produced

Microfilm Averages

16mm: 2800 exposures; 2 1/2 Hollinger boxes; 1 1/2 Cubic ft boxes
35mm: 600-700 exposures; larger format items, books, newspapers, maps etc.

Permanent-Value Records Microfilmed by TSLA

1. Chancery Court
   • Minutes
   • Enrollments (if available)
2. Circuit Court
   • Minutes (Civil Cases)
   • Minutes (Criminal Cases)
3. County Clerk (Or any transferred to Probate Court)
   • Administrators' Bonds and Letters
   • Administrators' Settlements
   • County Ranger Reports
   • Executors' Bonds and Letters
   • Executors' Settlements
   • Guardians' Bonds and Letters
   • Guardians' Settlements
   • Insolvent Estates
   • Inventories of Estates
   • Marriage Records
   • Minutes (Quarterly and Quorum Courts and County Commission)
   • Physicians' Register
   • Road Commission
   • Vital Records (Births and Deaths)
   • Wills
4. Register of Deeds
   • Deeds
   • Deed Indexes
   • Military Discharges
   • Miscellaneous
   • Oil and Gas Leases
   • Plats
   • Releases
   • Trust Deeds
5. Trustee
   • Tax Books
   • Tax Duplicates
6. School Superintendent
   • Board of Education Minutes
   • Tennessee Education Census

Municipal Records

1. Annual Reports
2. Deeds and Title Papers
3. Minutes of Board and Committees, Counsel
4. Ordinances
5. Resolutions
6. Tax Rolls

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Tennessee State Library and Archives coordinates with the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) to microfilm county records. These are considered the "loose county files" that compliment the permanent bound volumes. GSU restricts their project to the following years.

GSU List of Records And Dates:

County Clerk

• Marriage Licenses 1950

• Divorces 1950
• Birth / Death Records 1900
• Apprenticeships 1900
• Non-commissioned 1900
• Military Pensions All
• Bastardy Bonds 1900
• Probate Files 1915
• Wills
• Petitions
• Estate Inventories
• Estate Settlements
• Guardian Settlements
• Administrator Bonds
• Guardian Bonds

County Court 1900

• Petitions
• Guardian Files
• Administrative Files

Chancery Court

• Petitions 1915
• Files 1915

Circuit Court 1900

• Petitions
• Files

(This is a general listing of the types of records found in courthouses.)

Basic steps involved in a GSU Project:

1. Records are identified and inventoried by local volunteers, TSLA staff, or GSU volunteers. Records outside the GSU project scope can petition for a special project.
2. TSLA reports interest to GSU full time staff.
3. A GSU project number and report is assigned to the county project.
4. GSU sends out a volunteer missionary couple to prepare the records for filming.
5. The "Document Prep" couple will flatten, clean, folder, most importantly index the records.
6. A second couple will be assigned to microfilm the collection of records at a later date.
7. A duplicate negative is sent to TSLA.
8. TSLA Preservaton Services staff duplicates and prepares this film for patron use.
9. A copy print is sent to the "custodian" of the records. This means the county official who is responsible for the records. They may place the microfilm anywhere they choose.