SHELBY COUNTY ARCHIVES
NEW MEMPHIS LOCATION
- Ansearchin' News Fall 2000
Shelby County Archives have moved from the old Cossitt Library to spacious new quarters in the former county jail and criminal court building at 150 Washington Street in downtown Memphis. About 8,000 cubic feet of county records have been transferred to the remodeled facility which has a shelf capacity of about 20,000 cubic feet on its third and fourth floors.
Steve Satterfield, county public records administrator, oversees the operation. John Dougan, formerly with the Memphis/Shelby County Library's History and Genealogy Department, has been appointed county archivist and is in the process of compiling and organizing the records. Vincent Clark, former historian and curator of the Tipton County Museam, Veterans Memorial, and Nature Center in Covington, is manager of the archives and handles requests for copies of records and information.
Among records housed at the archives:
Shelby County marriage records 1820-1998
Memphis death records 1848-1914
County death records 1914-1949
Probate court records dating back to the early 1800s
About 60 years of circuit court files
Miscellaneous chancery court files
Some criminal court records
Naturalization records up through 1911
Docket books and loose papers of the old county quarterly court
Other treasures include scrapbooks of clippings back to 1936 regarding the old three-member county commission, which was the county's former chief administrative arm, and papers of Roy C. Nixon, first county mayor who served from 1976-1978. The public service desk for the Archives is located on the second floor, and the phone number at the new facility is (901) 545-4356.