Reorganization of Files in Smith County

TYLER — The Smith County Clerk’s Office Vital Statistics Department is located on the third floor of the Annex Building on E. Ferguson. For years that was the easiest part of finding Family Census Documents, finding their location. However, the real challenge was just beginning. On Wednesday, the county said the file have been augmented. These files span from 1934 to 1969 and are in 117 boxes. Employees say it was not uncommon to have people who came to the office in search of a document and leave empty handed.

Smith County Clerk Karen Phillips said these documents were impossible to search until asking employees to go through every box and organize them, “When they had time, they went through the entirety of the tens of thousands of documents, and put them in a searchable order.” This project was also necessary to prepare for the future scanning and digitizing of the records. Since the project has been completed, Phillips says,”not one person who has come in to ask for their information has left empty handed, instead of taking days to search for a record, it now takes a couple of minutes.” Phillips is asking anyone who might have come to her office that was unable to find their information from the Family Census Documents, to come back and check again. For more information the number is 903-590-4670.