The Newark star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1909, 1909-08-25
RUSSELL POINTS
/ TO HIS RECORD
AS SURROGATE
Improvements Inaugurated in
Office During Last Five Years
( Have Benefited Public.

Surrogate George E. Russell said to-
day that he is in the fight to the finish
Tor the denomination to the office he now
old by the Republicans of the county.
He then went on to show what he had
lone in the way of increasing the eff
cheney of the office during his ineum-
bency of five years.
He first dwelt particularly on the fact
that the collateral Inheritance tax as a
source of revenue from the county and
State had never before been fully ex-
plotted. n no less than $500, 600 had
been assessed during his term, 5 per
cent. of which is RENTED by the State
to the county, and is turned in as re-
ceipts of the surrogate's office.
Il found" said Mr. Russell, today,
that this avenue of revenue had never
been fully exploited and l directed the
attention of the State authorities to the
fact that this matter was being neglected
throughout the State. The result was
the passage of an act by the Legislature
putting that matter in the hands of the
State comptroller to insure COLLECTION in
every county in the State"
A Difficult Task.
This work of reindexing the records
of the surrogate's office was a long
and difficult task, and made a decided
advance in the method of keeping the
records in the s~urrogate's office. The
only method of obtaining access to the
thousands Of Wills and the other val
I1nh1n ~ Ia flA - Haa e. 4I,a..1I
the indices to the records.
Some Of the older books had become
so. badly worn that the reading was
fast becoming illegible n could only
be read with the aid of a magnifying
glass. 1t became imperative to cor
rect this condition, not only to perfect
the records. but that the public using
the Office should not be handicapped.
( Another defect in the old system was
that the induces were arranged in three
a%lphabets. which made necessary the
denomination of three sets of books by
searchers before they could obtain the
information sought. Then again the
old indices were so arranged hat cases
were docketed only by the surname,
requiring searchers to, In some cases,
look through many hundreds of names
of similar spelling in search of the
particular case they were in need of.
By the system just completed all the
records in the Office are brought I'M
der one alphabet and the Lusk system
of indexing has been adopted, whereby
not only the nan is indeXed, but
also the christian lame, increasing the
rapidity and accuracy with which ac-
cess a be had to the records.
Loose Methods Found.
The original intention was to merely
copy the old dockets into the new ar
rangement. 1t was soon found, how
ever, that from 1873 to 1888, a very
loose method of docketing the cases
had been followed, many cases hav-
ing been omitted from the docket.
Some on the docket We're not indexed
and many hundreds of errors of dates
and liber pages We're found, so 1t be-
came necessary that all should be cor
rected. Accordingly the papers filed
between. 1893 and 1907, amounting in all
to over "a 900 different cases, We're gone
over and compared with the docket
and all cases of errors or omissions
from the record corrected. so that at
the present time the public Is assured
of having an absolutely correct record
of all of the Invaluable papers in the
office of the surrogate of the county,
from 1893 to date.
Another work that signalized the
Russell administration of the office was
the preservation of the valuable old
maps and documents on file in his
office by having them placed between
two sheets of transparent silk.