Locating Historical U.S. Deeds Online
Most of you probably know that I have a lot of North Carolina ancestors. As a result, I've been very happy with the recent trend of North Carolina counties to place their deeds records online in digitized format. Most N.C. counties have their current land records online...with many also including historical deeds back to the 1970s or 1980s, such as the Edgecombe County Register of Deeds. There are many, however, that offer access to deed records going all the way back to the 1700s! Chatham County, North Carolina, for example, offers access to digitized indexes and deed books dating back to 1771, while Cumberland County online deed records date back to 1754.
The best place to begin your search for historical deed records is the Register of Deeds or Clerk of Court or whoever is in charge of recording deeds and other real estate records for your county of interest. You can often locate these offices through a Google search, or by going directly to the county government site and then drilling down to the appropriate department. Salem, Massachusetts historic deed books 1-20 (1641-1709), for example, are available online from the Essex County Registry of Deeds.
There are also other sources for historical records, such as state archives and local historical societies. The Georgia Virtual Vault, for example, includes Chatham County, GA Deed Books 1785-1806. The Maryland State Archives is especially notable for its cooperative project to provide access to deeds and other land record instruments from across the state. Check out MDLandRec.net with searchable indexes and viewable volumes from Maryland counties dating back to the 1600s!
Comments
I would be very interested to know if the .GOV site is a very comprehensive site regarding all the records they advertise, the death, etc. records. Before I pay, could someone tell me that has had experience with them. Kimberly?
Thank you so much.
Donna
Donna,
If you’re referring to the site listed above in the Sponsored Links section, I have no personal knowledge of the site. These “sponsored links” are Google ads and outside of my editorial control. Looking at the site, I noticed that there appears to be no comprehensive list available of the exact records they claim to have, and a search doesn’t provide a number of results. You have to sign up before you can learn anything about the site, in other words.
The best way to approach unknown sites such as this one is to take a step back and evaluate what they offer and how they support their claims. I offer suggestions on how to do this in How to Identify & Avoid Genealogy Scams. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful in your evaluation.
Kimberly
This site says you can look up info free. All it lets you do is make the request but it does not give you any information unless you subscribe. This is not free. I think these are false and misleading ads and should not be placed on you site.