The prothonotary's office is the record keeper for a county's civil court. The clerk of courts keeps records for criminal court, explained retiring prothonotary Glenna Walters.

She said only Commonwealths, not states, have a prothonotary in each county. That means only Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia use prothonotaries.

Walters said the original 13 colonies all had prothonotaries in each county, as all 13 were commonwealths.

The main documents requested in her office, Walters said, involve passports; people coming in for divorce decrees to prove all name changes for the Real ID driver's license; land disputes and rights-of-way; fictitious names; naturalization records; court records for contractors or doctors to see if they have judgments; or records on individuals others find suspicious.

“One woman's daughter was dating a guy she didn't like, and she came in and found out he is an abuser,” Walters said.

She said all requests, whether from the public or courts, are processed in one day at the prothonotary's office.

“There is never a backlog,” Walters said.

She said most of the office's records from the 1800s are in the Iron Mountain storage mine in Boyers. Walters is now working on digitizing them for easy access.