June Employee Spotlight- Liska McCasland

Posted by: Marsha Bills

LISKA MCCASLAND DOCUMENTING
DALLAS COUNTY HISTORY

If it’s Friday, Liska McCasland is entering by hand one of thousands of divorces not on the District Clerk’s computer database. The 20-year veteran of District Clerk Records has undertaken the monumental task of indexing every divorce from 1928 to 1968, the year before computer entries began.

Liska begins with old index books – of which there are more than 30 - in which cases are listed only by the party’s last name. She then copies pages of the ledgers that will eventually be scanned so that customers can retrieve 80-year-old decrees. If the old cases are recorded on microfilm, Liska positions the film so that all data, including case numbers and complete names, are visible. In many cases, the film is so faded that Liska types the information on a document that will be scanned.

This enormous special project has been added to her usual duties responding to all mail requests submitted for civil and family court records.

Born outside Santa Fe on an Indian reservation whose heritage she continues to study, Liska was adopted and brought to Dallas by her mother, Mamie McCasland, who later served as Chief Deputy to District Clerk Bill Long. After graduation from college, Liska came to work at Dallas County in the County Clerk’s office, later moving to District Clerk records where she has remained for 20 years. “Every day is interesting to me because every day is different,” says Liska. “I get to glimpse into the lives of people, each with their own story I’m trying to record, and help other people who are trying to retrieve an important part of their past.”

HOME