1

Greater Sioux

County

Genealogical

Society

Newsletter

Sioux Center Public Library

102 South Main Ave. Sioux Center IA 51250

Volume 15----Issue 1

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Retracing the Trails of Your Ancestors

Using Deed Records

by William Dollarhide

From the GENEALOGY BULLETIN, Issue No. 25, Jan-Feb 1995

Establishing

Proof

of

Residence

and

Learning Genealogical Clues

Since the first colonists came to this continent,

land ownership has always been an important

part of our American society.

As an example, nine out of ten

adult white males in America

owned land before 1850. Even

today the figure is over fifty

percent.

With this nearly universal

coverage before 1850, and

since

genealogical

research

starts getting more difficult

about that time, it is a wonder that family

historians are not using land ownership records

more often to solve their genealogical puzzles.

For instance, did you know that there is a

county-wide surname index to virtually every

land owner in America since the early 1600s --

an index that is more complete than any head-of-

household census index ever compiled? And did

you know that you have a ninety percent chance

of finding your ancestor in that land ownership

index?

There are few indexes used by genealogists

that offer a ninety percent chance of finding the

right person. Even today, a modern telephone

directory

gives

the

names

of

only

those

households with a publicly listed telephone

number. A recent study in Los Angeles revealed

that over twenty percent of the telephone

numbers are unlisted numbers. Yet, there is a

surname index for Los Angeles County that gives

the names of ninety percent of the heads of

households of that county during the 1850s. The

index is called the "Grantee/Grantor" index or

"Index to real estate conveyances". Such an

index can be found in all 3,100 counties in the

United States.

Let's take the 1840 census as an example. In

1840,

the

names of the

heads

of

households

are all that are

shown -- but if

you were to

look at the Grantee/Grantor index for the same

county, you may discover that one household

could have more than one landowner. Say you

find in the census that the head of household is

John Smith, Jr. But what you don't know is that

living in the same household is John Smith, Sr.,

and maybe even John Smith, III, and each of

them own a piece of property. Only John Smith,

Jr. is listed in the 1840 head of household

census, but the Grantee/Grantor index lists all

three landowners.

We genealogists eventually recognize the

significance of land ownership as we attempt to

locate records of our ancestors. But at first look

we may not see the importance of land records