Have you walked the land of your ancestors? On your next vacation, plan to include this bit of genealogy.

The first step is to locate the address and hours for the county courthouse. You can find addresses in Elizabeth Petty Bentley's County Courthouse Book.

Bentley's book is arranged by state and then by county. As a "for instance," the entry for Clark County, Washington, gives the address and telephone and tells you that the County Assessor keeps land records. It is a good idea to telephone or write and ask the current office hours.

If you can not find a copy of Bentley's book, you can often find courthouse information on the GenWeb. [www.usgenweb.org] Go to the county of interest and look for something like "other links".

When you arrive at the courthouse, go to the office where the deeds and deed indexes are located. Ask the clerk if you may look at the old indexes. These may be called grantor/grantee or direct/indirect indexes. The grantor or direct indexes are alphabetical by the seller and the grantee or indirect indexes are alphabetical by buyer. You need to look at both indexes because your ancestor first purchased land, and then sold it. Sometimes this final sale was done after death.

Begin reading the index entries before the time you think your ancestor arrived in the county and read past his death date. Often, the final land transfer was not recorded if the land stayed in the family. It was only when the land was finally sold to a non-family member that the deed was removed from the shoebox and taken to the courthouse for recording.

When you find an index entry for your ancestor, copy everything from the index: the names, the dates, the volume number, and the land description if it is given. Then, go back to the clerk and ask for help in locating the volume with the deed. In some courthouses, the indexes and the deeds have been microfilmed. In others, you actually handle the original books.

Copy the important items from the deed: the names of the parties and their residences, their occupations, the price of the property, the property description, adjoining property owners, special clauses, names of signers and witnesses, date of the document and when it was recorded. Ask if you can make a photocopy of the document.

Deeds contain the description of the location of the land. Ask the clerk where you can obtain a county map. Sometimes this is in the county engineer's office. Sometimes it is in the assessment and taxation office. Plot the land on the map, and you are ready to go walk the land where your ancestor lived.

© 2002

Connie Lenzen, CG