Unk Hiram's
Beginning Genealogy Lessons
Lesson #5
Lesson 5: Land Records
In the last lesson we discussed marriage licenses, now lets take what we learned and build on it.
The first thing you want to do is (again) pull out your list of folks that should be in that county. At the courthouse there will be registers of who bought (Grantee) and who sold (Grantor) land in the county. These registers list the buyers and sellers chronologically (by date). Start in the Grantee (buyer) register. I make it a habit to begin about 10 years earlier than I think my ancestor got to the area. The reason for this is simple --- I might be wrong. The ancestor may have moved into the area much earlier than you thought.
After you locate the land deeds that are pertinent to your ancestors you need to make a purely financial decision. My recommendation is to make a photocopy of every record that you have found, but if you are not ready to commit that much money to the project, you can do an abstract.
To do an abstract, all you have to do is copy down all the vital info on the deed. The vital data on a deed that you want to put on your abstact is: Date (the date you did the research), location of register (where you did your research), grantor (seller), grantee (buyer), residence of grantor, residence of grantee, price (of the land), date of signature of grantee, tax stamp amount, date of acknowledgment, date of recording (the date it was filed), and any and all other info on the deed. You can get a free land deed abstract form at Printable Forms (Keyword ROOTS > Beginners > Printable Forms). Take a quick look at the form, so that you will be familiar with what it is asking for. As much as we would like to get all the information from of every land deed we look at, facts are that you won't, but get as much as you can.
After you go through all the land deeds that listed your ancestors, as either the Grantor or Grantee, it's a good idea to browse through the rest of the land deeds filed during the same time period. The reason for this is that your ancestor may have been a witness on someone else's deed. Every bit of evidence you find in your research will help you.
Q & A Section:
- The registers for Land deeds are broken down how?
- Grantors and Grantees
- Alphabetically
- By Size
- None of the above
- What are the two best methods for collecting land deed info?
- Photocopy the deed or doing an abstract
- Photocopy the deed or doing a hand copy of the deed
- Buying a certified copy of the deed and photo copying it
- Maine and New Hampshire
- What information on the land deed do you NOT need?
- Grantor's name
- Grantee's name
- Date Filed
- Trick Question: You need it all!
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