Oft Overlooked Organizations
In our quest for networking opportunities and document/records repositories we tend to focus on the most obvious. One often overlooked source for both are local historical societies serving the region where you are concentrating your search. In this case, "local" means city or county level societies. Many local historical societies maintain either an archive or a museum, or both. When counties or cities run out of space they often turn to the local historical society as the repository for records that would otherwise go to a landfill.
Our county gave their property tax records to the county historical society several years ago. Those records cover the years from 1840 through the 1920s. They are the only copies in existence. The county sends inquiries to the historical society on a regular basis.
Most are just a phone call away!