When St. Isidore Parish in Kanata reached out to the Archdiocesan Archives for help, they had a unique problem: a set of cemetery plot sale records more than 120 years old that were extremely dry, fragile, and—even worse—tightly rolled together. The goal was to unroll and flatten them so they could be safely stored and read without risk of damage.
Judith Dimitri, our diocesan archivist, had been holding onto the documents for two years, waiting for the right moment to tackle the project, and for a partner to assist, which turned out to be volunteer Shaun Retallick. “Now that I have Shaun as a volunteer, I figured it would be a fun project for us to do together!” said Judith.
To tackle the challenge, they decided to try a technique Judith had learned about in school and seen other archivists use. “I basically Googled the technique again to refresh my memory,” she admitted. “Although, to be fair, we did it using none of the fancy supplies usually required!”
The process involved placing warm water in a large plastic container, then putting one of the rolled documents in a smaller container inside it. With a lid over both containers, humidity gently rose from the water to re-humidify the paper, all without getting it wet or damaging it. Slowly, the document began to unroll on its own and could be safely flattened.
The experiment was a success! After digitizing all 36 cemetery records (just in case), they have continued using the method to restore the remaining documents. Thanks to this careful work, these fragile records can now be preserved, stored safely, and easily read for years to come.
Check out the photos below to see the process in action!
