Very true.  We do touch history.  Long before they locked everything away, the original cowhide bound books from around 1624 were out on the Registry shelves right next to  the computer terminals.  The Indian deeds granting ownership of whole towns are recorded in those books. My favorite older assessors maps are the ones from about 1905 or so, which are gigantic & have pasted in, dimensionally accurate houses & other structures on each lot. 

I trained in Worcester about a million years ago & if I remember correctly, the downstairs vault was part of the original jail under the courthouse.  Wonderful stuff.  Now it's all computers & how fast can you turn it around...no romance left to title searching :(.