CINCINNATI (FOX19) – In the throes of the Great Depression, workers with the Works Progress Administration, an agency that put unemployed people to work, created a set of maps intended to show every burial spot for veterans in Hamilton County, from the Revolutionary War through what was then called the World War.
Less than 20 years later, the records were transferred to microfiche, and in the 1970’s, the Hamilton County Recorder’s Office made what could have been a costly decision. They decided to get rid of the books, not knowing that the printed text would last better than the microfiche, which has been deteriorating, frustrating historians and genealogists for decades.
Wednesday, the original books were unveiled, having survived a series of moves that might have led to their disappearance, if a few people hadn’t sought to preserve them.
