Restoring The Past For The Next 100 Years

The Kankakee County Recorder’s office is looking to the future, more specifically the next 100 years. Kankakee County Recorder Lori Gadbois is working with a restoration company to begin a restoration project on the Grantor and Grantee books within her office. These books hold the history of the county, dating back to 1853. The index of information tells a story of land ownership and more.

Owning your own home or property to build a home is truly the “American Dream”. For many of us this will be our greatest achievement. The recorded deed in the Recorder’s office is the official record of title. This information shows who owned it and who bought it, to explain it simply.

All of the recorded information is public record, but not all can be found on the internet. Recorder Gadbois stated when she took office the computerized information dated back to part of the year 1991 to then current 2008. None of that information was available via internet. Since then Recorder Gadbois and her staff have added several years back to 1987 making searchable information on the computer system going back 31 years. This is work that is happening daily.

It is anticipated this will take about 3 to 4 years to complete all 57 books. The positive about this is that we will have a digital back up copy of the books and all 57 books restored, which will have another 100 year shelf life. Recorder Gadbois stated, “our work is never done, every day we record documents we are establishing history the next day. This is a great honor to work for the people of Kankakee County and those who use the Recorders
Office daily or when they need us.”