This news item expired on Friday, June 21, 2019 so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.
Buncombe County Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger will join a board tasked with documenting, preserving, and creating greater access the Tar Heel State’s historical documents. On June 12, Governor Roy Cooper selected three new members for the North Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board, with Drew being the Board’s only representative West of Greensboro.
As the County’s Register of Deeds, Drew has pioneered initiatives making data more accessible to the public. “My staff and I have worked to digitize all of our birth, death, marriage, and property records. Historical records are only useful to those who have access to them,” he notes. “My office became the first County in the country to create a digital database of slave deeds. Since then, I have been working with other County officials, Register of Deeds offices, and university students to digitize records of slavery in their communities.”
That work has gained the attention of Governor Cooper as he selected Drew for the board appointment which is set to run through 2020. “As a Register of Deeds, I have worked closely with the Department of Cultural Resources and our State Archivist on a handful of projects. I was excited to learn that I would have the opportunity to work with them in a new capacity and bring a perspective to the board with the knowledge of the County records that I am charged with keeping.”
You can see all of Governor Cooper’s board appointments here and learn more about the NC Historical Records Advisory Board and its projects here.