October 25, 2024
Land records are often underutilized by genealogists. We tend to think of them as dry legal documents that don’t contain much useful genealogical information. I used to feel that way myself, but some major brick wall breakthroughs based on land records have changed my mind.
Land was a major reason that emigrants came to America. In Europe, aristocratic families owned most of the land. Tenant farming was the norm. People of lesser means had little opportunity to own their own houses and farms. America was the land of opportunity simply because nearly everyone could eventually own land. In the 1800s nearly 90% of free men owned land.
Because so many people owned land in America, deeds and other land-associated documents are plentiful. These land records were also often the first records kept in a new area as it was settled. In most parts of the United States, land records were kept at the county level. The records are readily available either online or at the county courthouse of the applicable county.
If you enjoy traveling, visiting county courthouses and perusing the county deed books is a great way to find out about your family. Alternatively, I have found that the Family Search website offers deeds from most counties throughout the U.S. Family Search is free and easily searched from home. Use a place search to find out what records are available for various locations.
Many deeds are viewable on the Family Search website. However, some deeds will not be available from home but will be accessible at a local FamilySearch Center. You can find nearby Centers by searching the Family Search website. Hours and locations are indicated, and there is no charge to use any of the FamilySearch Centers.
Deeds can provide many clues about your family. At a minimum they will locate an ancestor at a specific location and time. Family relationships may be implied or even specified. Sometimes prior places of residence are given. Before 1850 deeds are also one of the only records which list the first name of a wife.
Sometimes land records can even break longstanding brick walls. One of my husband’s lines hit a dead end at his second great grandfather, Enos Stetser. None of the records I found gave any indication of Enos’ parents’ names. Enos spent his life in Gloucester County, New Jersey. Even though land records are sometimes complex, I eventually checked on deeds for Enos.
I immediately found a deed for land that Enos was selling. The deed stated that Enos was selling the piece of land and that he was entitled to make the transaction because he was the rightful owner. Enos had inherited the land from his father who’d inherited it from his wife. She had inherited it from her father. The list continued through Enos’ family line for four generations. Each former owner’s full name was given. The women’s maiden names were even included. My husband’s line suddenly was extended to the early 1700s.
I’ve since found other deeds with similar listings of the prior owners of plots of land. These kinds of deeds seem to be more common in colonial and early American eras. They are also more common for areas where the metes and bounds system of land surveying was used. Metes and bounds were used primarily in the first thirteen states and states derived from them such as Maine and Vermont.
If you’re not using land records, you’re missing a great genealogical resource. Although land records can be complicated, they’re worth the extra effort. They can sometimes open up lineages for which records are found nowhere else.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society