City of Shelby awarded grant to digitize records dating from 1863
SHELBY, OH - The City of Shelby has been awarded a $2,967 grant through the Ohio History Fund to digitize and transcribe approximately 5,800 pages of city council minutes, incorporation records and ordinances dating from 1863 through 1934. Only 14 applications of 49 submitted were awarded funding.
The 13 volumes containing these records are fragile and grant funds will pay a professional digitization company to complete the work. The goal of the project is to make the information in these primary sources accessible, as they record details about Shelby’s incorporation as a town; the industrialization period; and 1921, when the city and charter were formed. History of the town’s industrialization will be of interest to the public as well as historians wishing to further document history.
The project sponsored by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission will involve partners Marvin Memorial Library and the Richland County - Shelby Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Once scanned, the images will be uploaded to the library’s section of the Ohio Memory Project. Genealogy chapter volunteers will transcribe any handwritten minutes. The entire project will be searchable and freely available to the public.
This Project is made possible in part by the Ohio History Fund, a grant program of the Ohio History Connection. The Ohio History Fund is made possible by voluntary contributions of state income tax refunds, sales of Ohio History “mastodon” license plates, and other donations.