About Karen: Karen has been the Ashland County Register of Deeds since 1997, and also serves as the Land Information Officer of Ashland County. Prior to her election to the office of Register of Deeds, Karen was employed by Ashland County as assistant to the Land Description Officer. She enjoyed serving her township as Town Treasurer from 1981 to 1997. Karen was born and raised in Ashland. She and her husband Mark have four children - two daughters and two sons - and four granddaughters. Karen enjoys playing in her church's handbell choir and motorcycling and spending time with family.

About the Register of Deeds office:  The office staff consists of two full-time persons (including the Register of Deeds) and one part-time person. An imaging system was installed in July of 2000 and backscanning of documents is being done as time permits.  As of the beginning of 2009, images are available from 1990 to the present and may be viewed on the four public terminals in our office.  Our RODdirect Document Search website allows free access to our document index along with the ability to purchase document images online by using a credit card, establishing an escrow account or by subscription.

About Ashland County:  Ashland County was created in 1848 and is named after Henry Clay’s home in Kentucky. The county consists of 16 municipalities – 13 townships, one village and two cities and has a population of 16,866 (2000 Census). The county seat is Ashland, which lies on beautiful Chequamegon Bay. Most of the Apostle Islands are within Ashland County’s boundaries, including Madeline Island, a popular tourist destination. The county has many miles of rivers and streams, picturesque inland lakes and two state parks – Copper Falls State Park near Mellen and Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island.