The Books!
Now, I do want to give you a "heads up" on a few things about the deeds room. The books of indexes are large and heavy. Many weigh 10 pounds or more. After you take out a few, it feels like MUCH more!
Some counties have them on microfiche or microfilm, but you usually only find those in the larger cities. In almost all of the small counties you will have to use these large books. Second, almost all of the rooms are without chairs so you will be doing a lot of standing! A few may have stools and maybe a table with some chairs, but don't count on it.
Plus, the fact you’re always pulling out or putting heavy books back in the shelves, you will get a work out! This means dress appropriately and wear comfortable shoes! My aunt Dorothy, who is 72 years old, wears “fishermen sandals”, or her Earth shoes. As far as dress goes, there is no dress code, but remember, you are in the county courthouse. Best rule of all; dress comfortable, but no bathrobes please!
"Feeling a little better?
Ok, let’s get started!
Have you found the deed index you want to look in? Well, go ahead and pull it out. Let us say you want to look for John Smith in 1870. Flip open the index to the S's. In the older books before the 1900s, they will have everyone with the last name starting with S.
The books will be divided on one side labeled with and the other side labeled REVERSE. One is for selling and the other for buying. If you do not notice this at first, you will, when you start reading the document.
But once you’re into the 1900s, most are broke up with just a few letters per book. Then inside of each book it is broken down even further with Sa, Sc, thru Sm, and so on. There will be an index in the front to tell you what page to turn to. Now if you have a name like Smith, then most of the time it will be continued in the X's or some other letter.
The index will tell you if it has been continued in another letter. So, pay close attention to the column by the letters to see if there is a name that has been extended somewhere else. Now you should have noticed in these later years that the books are now divided. One will be Reverse, and the other is Direct. Go thru both sets of indexes, as one could have a document that the other does not have.
There are a lot of columns with information on these pages. There are dates when the transaction took place. There is a column of what kind of document it is. There are columns for the names involved in the transaction. There is a column for the book and page number(s) to find the document in.
Look at the document in Example 1.
If you will notice the column that states what kind of document it is. Most are for different kind of transactions for pieces of land. They also include heir-ships, wills, affidavits and patents. Sometimes, you will find someone you have looking for, plus the bonus of finding siblings, aunts, uncles, and maybe the great-great-grand parents. Then you can trace each one of them backwards or forward and find even more.
Now back to the top for the "Heir-Ship" Documents!