Deeds & Land Records

Deeds record land changing hands, and land is how these families held and passed on nearly everything they had. A deed gives both parties, the date and the price. It also carries a boundary description written in the neighbors’ names, which quietly maps who lived beside whom.

Transfers inside a family are the useful ones. A sale for a token sum usually marks an inheritance being settled while the owner was still living. The same is often true of one to someone sharing the surname. Read these next to the wills for the same names.