|
SEARCH MY WASHINGTON COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA WEBSITES
History of and Other Families (o_f) from
The City and County of Washington Pennsylvania
Enhance your genealogy research about families in Little Washington, Washington County PA
using newspaper articles, birth, death, marriage, notices, obituaries (often with cemeteries
named), probates, deeds, surname finds, family trees, family histories, reunions and other information.
Site Search or Page Search (Ctl Key+F) easily finds items of interest.
Washington County Pennsylvania History and Families
HOW TO DO A DEED TITLE SEARCH PAGE 1- FAQ
WHAT IS A DEED TITLE SEARCH?
A title search involves finding every deed that documents every
owner of a piece of land, from the original Warrant or Land Patent, to the
current owner(s).
THAT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF WORK - DO I HAVE TO DO IT ALL?
No, you can do a forward-search, a backward-search, or a full
search.
WHAT IS A FORWARD SEARCH, AND HOW WOULD THAT HELP MY GENEALOGY
RESEARCH?
The goal of a forward-search is to find a current owner.
This helps find the exact location of a property. Most-many genealogists like to
know where their family lived. The boundaries of land can be seen on
aerial maps (for sale through the Tax Office), and the more you know about the
land, the easier it will be to locate on maps.
WHAT IS A BACKWARD SEARCH, AND HOW WOULD THAT HELP MY GENEALOGY
RESEARCH?
The goal of a backward-search is to know previous owners, and
especially to find the original owner. This helps if you have no idea of
an exact location of the land, or when land got split up over the years (with
different owners); it may be hard to know which part your ancestors owned unless
you do a title search.
You can often compare Deed information to Plat Maps showing
owners in a particular year.
WHAT IS A FULL SEARCH, AND HOW WOULD THAT HELP MY GENEALOGY
RESEARCH?
A full search means you work forward AND backward to get a list
of owners. Often, relatives bought the land if a person was moving or had
fallen on hard times. You may find new branches of your family!
It also makes it easier to locate the land, using maps of
different years.
WILL I NEED TO HIRE SOMEONE TO DO THIS? IS IT EXPENSIVE TO DO ON
MY OWN?
There are professional title searchers, who usually work for
Attorneys' offices. They are hired prior to land sales, when property
lines are in dispute, etc.
But for genealogical purposes, you do not need to hire a
"Title Searcher." If you cannot visit the Court House, though,
you may need to hire a person to go there to locate and to copy the Deeds for
you. This could be expensive, depending on hourly charges
& copying fees. If you hire someone, make sure the person copies ALL
pages and writes down the source-citation information!
WELL, HOW DO I DO IT MYSELF?
The next page HOW TO DO A DEED TITLE
SEARCH - FAQ contains some basic instructions for how to do a title search.
-
You need a starting point to do a Deed Title Search.
Look up the person in the Deed Index (or start with a Deed you already
found).
-
Each Deed has:
- a beginning section telling the Grantor (seller) and Grantee (buyer/s)
names
- a "bought from"
statement
- the number of acres and perches
- a "mets and bounds" section,
listing the neighbors and bordering properties.
Sometimes a hand-drawn map is included.
- possibly a statement of "this being the same land as recorded in
(book # and page #)
-
Pay attention to each of the parts above. Take notes
of each item ~exactly~ as written. Make sure you write down the Deed
book number and page number(s) for each and every deed identified as
"the right land".
-
Pay attention to two pieces of information: The date
of sale listed at the beginning of the deed, and the Date Recorded at the
end of the deed.
- Pay attention to the number of acres and perches.
- Write down the names of neighbors and note the description of how the land
adjoins the neighbors' lands.
- NOTE: Often, neighbors in the 1800s are "related" somehow to the
primary family.
- NOTE: Tracts of lands often do not change much in shape over the
years/decades.
-
Pay attention to the "Mets and bounds"
description. Write it down exactly as written in the deed, including
landmarks like "to a boulder", "to a stone", "to a
white birch tree", "to a corner fence post". Most of
these landmarks do not change for decades to over a hundred years.
They are important! You may even be able to see these landmarks when
looking at an aerial map taken in the 1950s-1960s.
-
When you find the buyer's name in the last deed (above), go
back to the Grantor Index (buyer). Look for that buyer now selling the
land, i.e. becomes the Grantor for the next deed.
- The land you want may now be part of a bigger piece of land.
- You need to look closely at the "Mets and Bounds"
description. Compare the descriptions from one deed, to the next
deed. See if ANY part "matches" the description in a
pervious deed. It may not match perfectly.
- NOTE: Most people buy "adjoining" land to what they already
own. But the basic shape of "your ancestor's property" will
be the same; it will just be absorbed into the larger piece.
- NOTE: Some deeds will set out the separate "tracts" within the
larger piece of land. These deeds make it much easier to follow the
sequence of selling and buying.
-
Again, when you identify a deed belongs to that deed
sequence, follow all steps to record the important parts of the deed:
Grantor, Grantee, date of sale, date recorded, acreage and perches, Mets and
bounds.
-
Each time you identify a deed is the correct land, take the
buyer's (Grantee's) name and remember that when he sells that land, he now
becomes the Grantor (not Grantee). Go to the Grantor Index, look up
the new name, and again, follow all the above steps.
-
If the buying - selling was straightforward, you should be
able to move forward OR backward in time simply by looking for the seller's
name (Grantor now; but was a Grantee or buyer before)... or looking for the
buyer's name (Grantee now, but will become a seller or Grantor at some
point.)
-
Concurrently (at the same time), keep in mind important
death dates. Look for the person's Will; it may list who received the
land. Look for the person's Estate Accounting; it may list a Sheriff
Sale with deed information. You may only know a death date from a
tombstone or obituary; from that date you will know the land had to be
transferred sometime after the person died. NOTE: Remember, the land could have been transferred while the person was alive, too.
ABNORMALITIES / IRREGULARITIES
NOTE:
Sometimes deeds were NOT taken to the court house for years,
or even decades. People did not always "go to town".
When they finally went to town may have only been after the original owner
died, so the deed had to be "Recorded" then.
Family members could "inherit" or assume control
of the land without having a "recorded deed" (1800s
especially). For example, my ancestor died in Dec. 1844. His son
#1 lived in Indiana; son #2 lived in Ohio. The in-laws of son #2 were
right around the corner from the property. Therefore, the
father-in-law 'assumed' the property but it was never
"deeded". No deed appears for 20 years! And by then,
the record of deeds had "skipped" 2 or 3 owners.
Submissions
to this Website-FAQ
*
|
