In preparing a lecture on house histories, I was reminded of the importance of chaining deeds – that is, linking the deeds for your house together using a deed chart – as the first step in researching the history of your home. Deeds are the primary source when conducting research on a building or property. While the deeds can only tell you who owned a house and not necessarily who lived in it at any given time, the transfer of the property from one owner to the next forms the structure of your research and can provide clues for where to look for more information.
When I research a house, building, or a specific plot of land, I always like to create a deed chart as a way to chain the deeds together. Historian Marian Pierre-Louis has created some nice examples of deed charts that you can download from her blogpost, Using a Deed Chart to Trace your Deeds. The chart starts with the most recent transfer of the property to the current owners and works backward in time. If you are researching your own home, it would start with your current deed, with you as the Grantee (buyer) and the previous owner as the Grantor (seller).
Keep in mind that deeds are not for the house itself, but for the land.
From there you can continue working backward. You know that the previous owner was at one time the grantee, so you can search the county indexes for that name as a grantee to find the next deed. Many regions have more modern deeds available online on their registry of deeds websites, though sometimes you may have to make a visit in person. You can continue to work backward in this manner to the earliest deed you can find.
Keep in mind that deeds are not for the house itself, but for the land. The earliest deed you can locate does not date the house as such, but it will reveal how long the property has been owned in a legal sense by an individual. You will likely need to rely on architectural and other clues to help date the house. Having all the deeds in place will help you determine which owner built the house based on its age.
Probate records are also more likely to include a description of the actual structure…
If there are gaps in your chain, check probate records. Often houses and property are left to heirs in probate rather than through a deed. You can still document this in your chart with a note that the property was transferred via probate rather than by deed. Probate records are also more likely to include a description of the actual structure rather than just the land, and the inventories included often can give you a sense of what was in the house at that date.
The reason I suggest starting a deed chain is because a deed chart forms the structure that will inform the rest of your research. Once created, it is a handy at-a-glance reference to have with you while you research. When you are digging through records and find a dated photograph of your house, having the deed chart with you will easily allow you to identify the owner of the house at the time the picture was taken. Once complete, a deed chart creates a nice timeline for the property that displays its history in its own right. You then have names and dates that can lead to further research opportunities to help you build the story of your home.
All of that was in my abstract. Every transaction and owner starting in 1847 with it being a land warrant to a soldier in the Spanish American war. He died on the way home and his children sold the warrant. There’s an interesting story about every owner. There were two brothers who passed it back and forth a few times. I wonder if they sold it to each other when they needed money. Their story was the best. I “met” living relatives of all of the owners and was able to fill in some missing years for most of them and all gave me information about their ancestor.
As a retired title examiner for both a civil engineer/surveyor and an attorney I learned to never skip an instrument or assume that it is not important. What looks like a mortgage if defaulted can become a deed by legal wording within the document or by a reference on the edge of the instrument and lead you to the actual deed. It is not as easy as just going back by earlier references within the deeds. One key factor my father, who was taught me the profession, taught me is to read the instruments on at least a couple of pages before and after. There can be hints or leads that help tremendously in your search. Especially after a death of the previous owner who’s executors or administrators maybe dividing up an estate. Never skip a trip to the probate court! Most important read every word from beginning to end of the instrument. You may find genealogy hints as well as changes in abutters who may be relatives. Good luck everyone.
Excellent post. Just a reminder that land records and tax records oftentimes
complement each other.
Where they survive, some schedules of the 1798 Direct Tax have physical descriptions of homes and outbuildings.
In doing “The Genealogy of John Taylor of Hebron, CT”, land deeds allowed me to follow
the purchase & ownership from father to son, & again to son & to brother. It also showed movement of the family from Hebron to Columbia Co., NY.
Similar to the post above, I undertook a major project to disprove the common wisdom regarding the identity of the original owners of Morattico Hall, a former plantation on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia. My search included several probate records that became tangled in lawsuits lasting decades, plus a deed of assignment related to a mortgage in default and a forfeited survey of “waste and ungranted land”. Fortunately, the court records included surveys that named the plantation and marked the location of the manor house on the survey. The original plantation of 574 acres was subdivided numerous times over the centuries further complicating matters. Ultimately, we connected the dots from 1926 when the manor house improvements were disassembled and sold to the Winterthur Museum (the manor house was lost to the Rappahannock in 1927) back to the original patent in the 1600s.
I’ll have to remember that. As it turns out when we got our house pd 4, we did just that.
I have actually been doing this using a combination of probate records and land deeds to help establish relationships within families. However, I have been using mind maps to keep track of the properties. The forms look like a handy way of keeping track as well.