Barton County Records Department staff members continue to reach back into past lives of county residents.
Amy Miller reported recently that the Records Department was able to help an Ohio family learn more about their past in the Albert area.
“Records staff had a request for information from a man in Ohio on Catherine Gallon.  
“Catherine Gallon was the man’s great grandmother and she lived with her husband John in Albert. 
“Death records for Catherine and John were found in Barton County’s archives. 
“Catherine’s death record lists that she was a housewife who died of tuberculosis at the age of 55. John’s death records states that he died at the age of 68.  They are both buried in the Great Bend Cemetery,” Miller reported.
But there was more, for the Ohio descendents, Miller explained. “In addition, staff found a listing for Otmar Gallon who died of gastro enteritis at the age of seven. 
“When checking the cemetery records, there was a notation on John Gallon’s head stone that read ‘GAR.’ That lead staff to check the Golden Belt Civil War Veterans-Grand Army of the Republic monument on Jack Kilby Square, north of the Barton County Courthouse. 
“The following information is listed on west plaque on the memorial:  US Regulars — John Gallon Company: F4 US Art.”
The records staff continues to be busy with requests, Miller added, noting the requests from February. “The Barton County Records Management Department had 173 visitors call, write, e-mail or walk in from Kansas, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Ohio.
“There were 281 requests for probates, cemetery and death records, marriage licenses, birth records, traffic, criminal, limited, civil, domestic, small claims, naturalization papers and census records.”
And at the same time, the staff were also busy creating new records.
“Department personnel updated the records of burials, quit claims, lot deeds and markers for Hillcrest and Golden Belt cemeteries for the month of February,” she reported. “Records staff completed entering the Underground Vaults and Storage records box numbers and location numbers for the 1999 Civil and Domestic case files. Staff also entered the code and case descriptions for those 694 files into Barton County’s records system. Staff then began entering the box numbers and location numbers of miscellaneous years of criminal supplements and 1999 criminal files into the Barton County records systems.”