Land Records

By Karen Coombs

We Can Glean Relationships From The Ownership Of The Soil

And

What About Taxes?

Deeds are the bulk and the backbone of American land records. They are usually found in the county. Deeds are pretty straightforward.

Deed is a term used very broadly. It means transfer, bargain or contract.

Deed books will contain many types of conveyances and contraction—deeds for granting ownership, mortgage transfers, dower releases, quit-claim deeds, deeds of gift, power of attorney, marriage property transfers, leases, indenture papers and other performance bonds.

The first-title deed is called a grant or a patent. This is the transfer of land from the government to private hands.

By using land grants or patents you can find who the first settlers were into the area and when your ancestors arrived into that area.

In the United States, responsibility for guaranteeing the legal title rested with the buyer and seller. Today we hire a title search company or a lawyer to trace the chain of title back to the first-title grant. This process lets the buyer know that the land actually belongs to the seller.

In earlier times the seller was responsible to provide an ownership chain back to the original land grant. This chain of ownership will be included in the deed entry.

Common Survey Methods

Metes and Bounds – The term metes and bounds refer to “measurement and markers”. This method is used in most State Land states, which include the colonial states and the southern states.

Surveys for metes and bounds began at a designed marker and using a series of straight lines proceeding from point to point. The lines surround the boundaries of a piece of property.

Township/Range – The Federal Land states base their land organization system on meridians, which is then divided into townships and ranges. Each township is divided into 36 sections, and then each section is subdivided into a variety of sizes. They are normally square or rectangular in shape.

Records Generated By Patents Or Land Grants

· Applications – will give location, intended use, prior residency, and date of intended inhabitancy.

· Warrant – the authorization for a surveyor to mark, plat and records a formal description for official title.

· Survey – shows bordering properties with neighbor’s names, names of rivers, streams and swamps.

· Patent – the official title of the property.

· Tract Book – the official recording of the land.

· Land Entry Case File – the file may have some or all of the above papers in it. Case files are issued even when the grant was rejected. In order to request a copy of the file, you must acquire the file number from the Tract Book.

Why Would My Ancestor Apply For A Land Grant?

· Normally land was given out in grants for service in the military.

· Certain areas were given for certain conflicts.

· Revolutionary War – The Carolinas.

· War of 1812 – Tennessee

· Civil War – Illinois

What Is Dower Right?

A dower right is that portion of an estate, which is given to a widow by law from her deceased husband’s estate or a daughter from her father’s estate.

When this property was to be sold, a release of dower was required before the sale of the property.

The dower right documents will give the first husband’s name or the father’s name.

What Is The Law Of Primogeniture?

The law of primogeniture is the right of the first-born male to inherit all real property upon the death of his father. This law was in force until shortly after the Revolutionary War.

By understanding this practice you can determine relationships between father and son. If the son sells property he did not purchase, he may have inherited it through law of primogeniture. The law required no legal recording of the transfer of property from one generation to the next.

What About Taxes?

· Poll Tax – the taxing of free males above a certain age. The age of adulthood changed throughout history.

· Property Tax – the taxing for ownership of various things—such as a piano, a wagon with so many wheels, a hearth, window glass.

Taxes were assessed every year. The assessor created a tax list. Some of the tax lists have survives. These can be used similar to census as far as head-of-household research is concerned. They will also cover period of time earlier than the census.