Rutherford County's Register of Deeds Heather Dawbarne was on the WGNS' Action Line and announced that the 200-plus years of paperwork have now been transferred to electronic filings.

She noted that State Senator Bill Ketron and Representative Joe Carr had initiated state law that now allows the Register of Deeds office to also maintain the files for other county departments. In addition to local electronic storage, the e-documents are also sent to the state archives. 

With local documents dating back to 1804, persons can trace family records and history back to the beginning of this community. 

Dawbarned noted that files can be e-mailed instantly to the public. 

A listeners phoned the talk radio show with concern that these e-documents might leaded to identity theft. She said, "This is public information that is available in the phone book, census records--and does not contain personal data such as social security numbers and such."