HI-TECH methods are being used to preserve an area's fragile history.

Details of births, marriages and deaths of medieval Teesside, contained in crumbling manuscripts are being transferred on to microfilm and CDs and catalogued.

Parish records dating back to the 1300s from all four Teesside council areas are held by County Archives.

By putting them on microfilm and CD, the details can be made readily accessible to historians and Teesside families scattered worldwide wanting to piece family trees together; without the risk of damaging the original documents.

The Cleveland Community Foundation has presented the newly-formed charity, Friends of Teesside Archives - assisting in the records overhaul - with a grant of £1,000 to buy a microfilm reader.

Letters arrive from all over the world from people wanting to know about their ancestors or buildings they may have addresses for.

Some of their forebears could have been children forcibly shipped off to Canada by the local authorities.

John Nicholson, chairman of the Friends, has trawled through hand-written records in the County Archives which list everyone who was admitted to the local workhouse.

His research, now deposited in the archives for the public to examine, reveals how children were put on board ship for the colonies.