Mountain Press Book Sale

I am passing this email along. If you have ancestors from Tennessee then see if there is anything you ight want.

Mountain Press is having a sale on all their Tennessee Genealogy Books.   All Tennessee books are being offered at a 10% discount until September 30, 2008.  Our Tennessee collection is our largest collection and includes deed books, census, birth records, will books, marriage records, tax lists, etc for many counties.    We have highlighted several books below from Tennessee. Once you add your books to the shopping cart, the 10% discount will be noted.    You can access the entire Tennessee collection by clicking the following link: Tennessee Genealogy Books.

Our entire collection of genealogy books can always be found at www.MountainPress.com.  Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you,
Mountain Press

• 1814 Court Martial of Tennessee Militiamen
• 1837 Tennessee Volunteers
• Cherokee Reservoir Grave Removals by T.V.A.
• First Tennessee & Alabama Independent Vidette Cavalry
• Grainger County, Tennessee Various Records
• Greene County, Tennessee Biographies
• McNairy County Tennessee Biographies
• Sequatchie Families

Family Tree Maker 2009 is Released!

I received my email last night to upgrade to the new Family Tree Maker 2009 in an email which stated in part:

We’re pleased to provide you with a FREE upgrade to the newest version of Family Tree Maker. Thank you for your patience, helpful comments and suggestions. We’ve come a long way over the last year, and we want you to enjoy all the latest additions and improvements at no cost.

When I clicked on the link I got a server overload message. So i decided to sleep on it and try again this morning.

Well this morning I tried it again and now I get this message

Due to the high popularity of our FTM 2009 free upgrade offer, we are unable to fulfill your order at this time. Please check back later. Thank you, The Generations Network, Inc.

This is not a great start to Family Tree Maker 2009, especially after all the bad reviews out there with the previous version, Family Tree Maker 2008. So I can’t say yet whether it is a great, bad or average product yet. Hopefully some of you were able to download this upgrade and have been playing around with it. Let me know how it is.

I have heard this is a much greater improvement over ftm2008. Here are some of the stated improvements.

General Features

• Streamline your data entry with one-click editing of individuals from any workspace in the software
• Enjoy faster startup times and improved file performance
• Find your ancestors more easily with improved Web Search. You can even choose to ignore irrelevant results.

New Reports:

• Genealogy reports (Register and Ahnentafel, both full and simplified)
• Data errors report
• Enhancements to many reports
• Hourglass
• Vertical pedigree chart
• Horizontal hourglass chart
• Bow tie chart
• 180–degree fan chart
• Family tree charts
• You can also use custom templates or design your own

New Functionality within Publishing

• Book layouts for main charts
• Saved settings in charts/reports
• Saved templates in charts
• Ability to show siblings within charts
• Single page PDF export from charts
• Enhancements to the RTF export
• Ability to add boxes in charts to “Marked Box” category and modify box settings
• Preparer information in chart footers

Source Improvements

• Simplify sourcing with “cut and paste” source citations

Improved Data–Manipulation Tools

• Change place name tool
• Find–and–replace dialog
• Edit person dialog, streamlining data entry from any workspace
• Spouse order setting in the person menu
• Ability to set the media order on a person
• Find Individual Dialog
• Find Duplicate Person Dialog
• Fact Data Options Dialog that allows for:
  • Ability to change fact types
  • Ability to move description to place or place to description
  • Ability to make information private
• Symbols in text fields

Improvements within Research tools

• Ability to ignore hints
• Option to delete existing facts in individual and web merge
• Inclusion of married name, AKA and titles in index
• Automatic simple backup at shutdown

Import Improvements

• OLE objects (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF) from previous FTM versions
• Improved name parsing
• Import previously ignored hints lists

Place Improvements

• Place map toolbar that allows free text place searches
• Pinpoint places such as libraries, churches and courthouses
• Track — and print — your ancestors’ migration paths on interactive maps with the new Places timeline

So take a look at Family Tree Maker 2009 yourself and when i can get it i will let you know what I think.

UPDATE 09/12/2008!

I just received an email back from Ancestry on the issue of the broken upgrade link:

I am so sorry for the inconvenience.  Apparently there was such an incredible response to the email and everyone was responding to it at the same time so it caused this error.  You should be receiving another email later today with instructions along with another code so you can upgrade for free.

Well I will be watching…….

UPDATE 09/14/2008!

Still no new update email. I looked to make sure this was not April 1st. I am still looking for someone who has actually gotten the program and has given it a test run…..

UPDATE 09/16/2008!

I got my email yesterday and it worked! But the upgrade is not a download so now I have to wait until I receive it in the snail mail. But at least it is on the way… I hope

Learning Church Records (Part 2)

What are the different types of church Records?

Baptism and Christening Records

Baptism or christening records almost always list at least the name of the person baptized, the date and place of birth, and the date and place of the baptism. For infant baptisms, the pastor usually recorded the parents’ names and often their place of residence, particularly if the pastor was serving a circuit rather than a single parish. Quite often, the register lists the date of birth or at least the age of the person being baptized. In addition, many baptismal records list the names of sponsors or godparents, who are often close relatives of the parents.

Marriage Records

The second major type of church records are marriage records. Almost all American denominations have recorded marriages, although there are some interesting exceptions. For instance, the early Puritans viewed marriage as a civil contract. Hence, marriages were performed by a civil magistrate and were not recorded in the church registers. This was not a typical situation, however. In most areas, church marriage records predate civil marriage records by many decades and sometimes even centuries. For instance, South Carolina did not record marriages (except for marriage contracts) at the county or state level until 1911. In such situations, church marriage records acquire greater importance.

Church marriage records vary widely in content. Some provide nothing more than the names of the bride and groom and the date. Catholic, Lutheran, and German Reformed marriage records frequently list the birthplace of the bride and groom.

Death Records

Church marriage records are often useful in locating an immigrant ancestor’s birthplace, but, in my professional experience, church death registers have been the single most valuable source for tracing an immigrant’s place of birth. Originally, churches recorded burials rather than deaths, and some churches still do. However, most American church records also list the date of death, and often they record a great deal more information.

Confirmation Records

While most genealogists are aware of the value of baptismal, marriage, and death records, they sometimes overlook other types of church records that also contain valuable genealogical and historical information; confirmation records are a case in point. Most how-to books dismiss them as mere name lists, which, admittedly, is often the case. However, those of the Scandinavian Lutheran denominations contain voluminous information, as do present-day Episcopal churches.

Scandinavian-American Lutheran confirmation records typically contain exceptionally valuable genealogical information. German-American Lutheran and Reformed confirmation records often contain the date of baptism and sometimes the place. Episcopal churches include records of baptism in the confirmation records and file a report with the bishop. Catholic confirmation records seldom contain the place of baptism. Most American Protestant denominations, if they perform confirmations at all, merely list the names of those confirmed and the date of the event, marking the young person’s entry into full membership in the congregation. Some also give the ages of those confirmed, yielding more precise estimates of birth data and identities.

Membership Records

Confirmation records lead to another category of church sources: membership records. One type of membership record is communicant lists. While not as valuable to the genealogist as the records already discussed, they can be of great help in reconstructing a family history. The sudden disappearance of a couple from the communicant lists may signify their departure from the community. The disappearance of one but not the other may indicate death, an important clue if the death records no longer exist.

Usually, the regular membership list is of greater genealogical value. In some cases, however, it too may be only a name list. But by the late nineteenth century, many Protestant churches kept fairly good membership records. The particular value of this record is in the information it contains about the movement of members in and out of the congregation. Some of these “removals” or “dismissals” occurred well after 1930, the date of the latest federal census available to the public. The implications for the genealogist seeking heirs rather than ancestors are obvious. Church records should not be dismissed as irrelevant for periods after civil registration began in a given state or community.

Other Types of Church Records

In addition to the types of records discussed above, local parishes or congregations created many other genealogically valuable types of church records: minutes of the church council or vestry, disciplinary records, pew rentals, and family registers, among others. If the ancestor was active in church affairs, such records can be invaluable for reconstructing the family’s history.

Many genealogists overlook church records created at the diocesan or denominational level. Admittedly, many such records lie moldering in church archives and are not easily accessible. But when such records are available, they can be of very great genealogical value. For example, bishops of the Episcopal Church keep records of “Episcopal Acts,” which include ordinations, confirmations, and admission and dismissal of clergy. Obituaries of some of the pastors provide invaluable genealogical data that is otherwise unavailable.

Obituaries can be found in another type of church record: the denominational or diocesan newspaper. Many of these contain obituaries of lay members as well as clergymen and their wives.

Church annuals and directories contain lists of clergy. In the Episcopal Church such directories, annuals, and almanacs were first published in the 1830s. The Episcopal Church Clerical Directory is now published biennially by the Church Hymnal Corporation, a subsidiary of the Church Pension Fund.

Learning Church Records (Part 1)

Church records rank among the most promising of genealogical records available. Indeed, for periods before the advent of civil registration of vital statistics (a very late development in many American states), church records rank as the best available sources for information on specific vital events: birth, marriage, and death.

They are also among the most under-used major records in American genealogy. Part of the reason lies in the number of denominations—there are hundreds of them. Identifying and locating the records of these various churches makes even professional genealogists hesitate. Yet the task is not impossible. Microfilming, photocopying, and indexing techniques make church records more accessible now than ever before.

Church records vary a great deal in content and emphasis according to the basic theology and social role of each denomination. However, a useful distinction is the difference between “state” churches and so-called “free” churches. State, or “established,” churches in Europe considered every Christian in the state or kingdom to be a member. Free, or “gathered,” churches emphatically rejected this inclusive view of belonging from birth. Rather, only those who had been “born again” in Christ could be considered true members of his church. The sign of this rebirth in Christ was another baptism (adult baptism) that took precedence over the person’s baptism as an infant. For this practice they were called Anabaptists—from the Latin for “rebaptizers.” The descendants of the Anabaptists include Mennonites, Hutterites, many smaller groups associated with the Pennsylvania Germans, and their British cousins, the Baptists, who form the dominant religion in much of America today.

Because Anabaptists saw the most important event in a person’s life as his or her rebirth in Christ, not his or her physical birth, their records reflect the difference. Baptist records contain much valuable historical information about the activities of adult members, but they do not always deliver accurate birth information. In contrast, Lutherans meticulously recorded infant births and subsequent parish baptisms.

Of course, theology is not the only factor that has determined the types of records kept. In Scandinavia and many German states, the Lutheran church was the established church. Thus, the pastor was a quasi-public official who was the official recorder of births, deaths, and marriages. Similarly, in England, a 1538 Act of Parliament required all ministers of the Church of England to record baptisms, marriages, and burials in their parishes. In 1597, another parliamentary act reinforced the original law, requiring that duplicates of parish records be sent annually to the bishop of the pertinent diocese, initiating the valuable “bishops’ transcripts.”

In Scotland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and certain German states where Calvinism became the established faith, pastors were also official record keepers. Not all German Protestants were Lutherans. In many German states, most notably in Prussia, the state church combined Lutheran and Calvinist elements, resulting in long-range consequences when German immigrants organized churches in the New World.

In areas of Europe where Roman Catholicism was the established faith, parish priests were the official recorders of baptisms, marriages, and burials. They were accountable to more than local parliaments, however. In 1563, the church’s Council of Trent issued a decree requiring proof of baptism before marriage. Subsequent decrees reinforced this edict, notably that of Pope Paul V in 1614, which made parish registers obligatory.

Church record-keeping transcended national and religious boundaries. It was a manifestation of a stage of European civilization that emphasized rationality and bureaucracy. Human memory and oral tradition no longer sufficed. The written record prevailed.

This background is relevant to discussion of American church records because habits, attitudes, and ecclesiastical edicts crossed oceans with the emigrants. The various immigrant churches, including those that developed in Plymouth Colony in the 1620s, reflected European philosophy and practices. In fact, most of the American colonies promptly established state churches. In New England, the Congregational Church generally held preferred status. In the southern colonies (Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina), the Church of England (Protestant Episcopal) became the established church, as it was in Maryland for a time, even though that colony was originally founded as a haven for Roman Catholics. As long as the Dutch controlled New Netherland (now New York), the Dutch Reformed Church served as the established church.

Some of these established churches functioned on a state level until well after the American Revolution, but the variety of immigrant groups and religious preferences ultimately defeated all attempts to impose religious uniformity. The Founding Fathers recognized this fact, totally separating church and state nationally when they drew up the Constitution. The wisdom of this decision was verified by the Great Awakening of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which shook established churches to the core and guaranteed that American religious life would be fundamentally different from that of the Old World.

The United States possesses a tremendous, sometimes bewildering, variety of religious groups that have widely differing record-keeping practices. Nevertheless, certain basic types of records found at the parish, or local, level can be identified.

Learning Land Records (Part 3)

What land Warrants for the Military?

The granting of military bounty land in the United States to encourage enlistments or reward previous service began in colonial times, but its legislative heyday was from 1788 to 1855, though claims were still being received by the federal government in the 1960s. Genealogists find bounty-land records especially attractive because they serve the dual role of locating persons in time and place and of proving military service. Applications sometimes contain a wealth of information, especially when heirs claimed lands.

Colonial legislatures gave land for military service, such as for the Narragansett campaign of King Philip’s War, 1675 to 1676, but these were mostly private acts passed to reward meritorious service to the colony. In 1701, Virginia passed an act promising two hundred acres free of quitrents for twenty years to those who would make armed settlements on the Indian frontier. The Crown’s proclamation of 1763 ordered the colonies to give bounty land for service in the French and Indian War to “reduced” (indigent) officers and to British Army privates mustered out in the colonies who intended to remain there. This did not include militia units. In 1776, Congress promised so-called “Hessian deserters” fifty acres but had few takers. Also in 1776, Congress promised bounty land to soldiers of the Continental line, with privates and noncommissioned officers to get one hundred acres, captains three hundred acres, and other ranks various amounts. States that likewise promised or afterwards gave bounty lands were Connecticut, Massachusetts (with Maine), New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants Awarded by State Governments (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), is a master index to approximately 35,000 persons named in the grants from these nine states. The states that did not give revolutionary war bounty lands were New Hampshire, Rhode island, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware.

North Carolina was the most generous, giving 640 acres (a square mile) to a private in the Continental line. Maryland gave the smallest amount, fifty acres to a private, but the state had very little western land to give. Figure 8-8 and table 8-1 show the locations of the military reserves and the acreage for each rank for each state and the federal government. Massachusetts grants were in Maine but were in no specific reserve. Privates who got a one hundred-acre warrant from the federal government were not eligible for a Massachusetts state grant. Soldiers of the Continental line from other states could take both the federal and their state land bounties. Paul Gates, History of Public Land Law Development, discusses aspects of various state grants. Gates states, without elaborating, that Connecticut gave bounty land; but this seems to refer to the Fire Lands in Ohio granted to individuals burned out in the revolution rather than to grants to soldiers. Virginia is discussed below because its bounty-land records are widely scattered; some are in the National Archives.

Congress was slow to redeem its promise of land for its soldiers. In 1788, it directed that bounty-land warrants be issued to those applying. But the U.S. Military District in Ohio, the only federal lands where federal revolutionary warrants could be used until 1830, did not open until 1796—a full fifteen years after victory at Yorktown. A planned second federal reserve at the southern end of Illinois was not created; instead, the district in Ohio was enlarged. The Ohio Company and John Cleves Symmes in 1787 and 1788 had purchased millions of Ohio acres on credit from Congress and were permitted to pay one-seventh of the price in federal bounty-land warrants. Therefore, land offices of the two speculations accepted some federal warrants, the earliest locales where they could be used. Congress also created three military reserves for veterans of the War of 1812, but there were no federal reserves after these three in Illinois, Arkansas, and Missouri. Warrants usable in the Virginia and U.S. military districts in Ohio were made redeemable by scrip acts in 1830 and 1832, respectively, in any GLO land offices in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In 1842, all federal bounty-land warrants were made good for purchases at any GLO land office.

The 1788 act stipulated that warrants were assignable, meaning the soldier could sell his warrant and not wait to take the land. This created an instant market in bounty warrants and allowed land speculators to accumulate large quantities of warrants and land. Paul Gates shows that less than one soldier (or his heirs) in ten got land by using his warrant under any federal bounty-land act. Because few soldiers actually used their warrants to patent land, patents and land-entry case files are much less valuable than the warrants and the warrant applications for locating a soldier’s military service. Most soldiers sold their rights, using the back of the warrant to assign it to the buyer, who might in turn assign the warrant to another buyer. Sometimes the assignment left the buyer’s name blank, to be filled in by the last purchaser. The warrant certificates issued to Mexican War veterans were folios, with the insides and back unprinted so they could be used for assignments.

The warrant market was big business, especially when warrants were no longer restricted to military reserve lands. Major brokerage firms dealt extensively in warrants, buying in the eastern states and selling to western land brokers and settlers. Financial newspapers in the boom years of the 1850s frequently carried price quotations. The government set a price ceiling from 1820 by charging a flat $1.25 per acre for most of its lands. The average market price peaked at about $1.20 an acre in 1854–55 for 160-acre warrants, just before the market was flooded by the act of 1855.17 More warrants were used in Iowa than in any other state, and it is estimated that half of Iowa was purchased with bounty-land warrants.

The federal government gave no bounty land for service after 1855, but Union veterans of the Civil War received special homestead rights: in 1870, the right to claim 160 acres within railroad grant areas (other homesteaders got only 80), and in 1872, the right to deduct the length of their war service from the five-year residency needed to prove a homestead.

To get a federal bounty-land warrant it was necessary, under any act from 1788 to 1855, for the soldier or heirs to apply. The warrant applications are in Record Group 15 in the Military Service Records section of the National Archives. The surrendered warrants (those used to obtain land) are in land-entry case files of the patentees in Record Group 49 in the National Records Center, Suitland, Maryland. The case file categories are briefly described in Harry P. Yoshpe and Philip P. Brower, Preliminary Inventory of the Land-Entry Papers of the General Land Office, pp. 7–9, known as Inventory No. 22. The patents, obtained by using land warrants, were like any other GLO patents. The official copies are in the Eastern States Office of the BLM in Springfield, Virginia. In seeking the various records related to a federal bounty-land warrant, the researcher should try to learn the warrant number, the acreage claimed, and the act used—for example, warrant no. 8256, forty acres, act of 1852. This information could be unnecessary because the National Archives may handle the searching, but having it in full or in part allows for more precise requests, thereby increasing the chances of success. The best source is the bounty-land application files.

Nichols Research

Trying to peice together William Nichols Sr’s family in a “burn county” has been no easy task. I have been trying different tricks to see if I can gleam any info from non-traditional sources. But i got an idea.

I had searched the net for William Nichols Sr of Pitt County, hoping to find some other researchers note or post on the family. No luck there. So I decided to look up the families the Nichols had a lot of land dealings with.

One family was John Windham (or Windom). John and William are first located in Tyrrell County in 1750. Both had a land Transaction in this County

9 May 1750 William Tomlinson of Johnston County to John Windom of same.  9 Mar 1750.  23 pounds, 10 shillings VA.  131 acres (messuage) on north side of Conneho Creek Swamp.  William Tomlinson, his wife Ann (x) Tomlinson.  Wit: John Windom, Wm. Nichols.   Tyrrell Co, NC,  Deed Book 2, Page 410

and

Pages 70-72: JOHN WINDHAM and ELIZABETH of Tyrrell County, North Carolina to JAMES LUNDY dated 8 Mar 1749/50; 82 acres on the north side of the Maherrin River adj. HARMAN REED and sd. JAMES (patent by EDMUND LUNDY for 165 acres on 28 Feb 1733), S: JOHN (M) WINDHAM and ELIZABETH (mark) WINDHAM, W: JOEL (signed) HARRIS, HENRY (signed) ADAMS, and BENJAMIN (signed) LEWIS [Note; John Windham son in law of Harmon Read; Elizabeth daughter of Harmon Read]

Next Both were in the 1755 tax list in Beaufort Co, NC. Pitt was formed in 1760 from Beaufort County. There are several land transactions showing that their lands bordered each other. John Windham even makes this Deed of Gift to his daughter and Grandson:

In May 1766   John Windhom. (from Pitt Co.) “in consideration of love, good will and affection which I have for my grandson John Nichols (of Pitt co.)”, have given 100 acres of land in Pitt Co., on Coneta Creek including the plantation that William Nichols formerly lived on.  Likewise my daughter Jean Nichols can stay on the land for her lifetime.  Signed (possibly just a mark) by John and Elizabeth Windom, Witnessed by James May, Nathan Mayo, and David Hathaway.  Pitt Co., NC Deed C321

As you can see Johns daughter married a Nichols. Also in doing a quick search on John Windham, I have found several sources whom claim he comes from Isle of Wright Co., VA. So now I do a search on Nichols in Isle of Wright Co., VA and all surrounding Counties. I find several Nichols/Nicholls/Nicholas Families in Nansemond County and  Norfolk County. These counties border NC and Bertie County where my of the first Nichols migrated to in the early 1700’s.

Notice the William Nichols here. Right after this date my William Nichols (abt 1755) shows up in NC. Norfolk County also borders NC and borders Isle of Wright co. John Windham was from Isle of Wright Co. John Windham’s daughter Jean married a Nichols and had a son John and had many dealings with William Nichols Sr.

Norfolk County, Virginia Will Abstracts, 1710-1753 - JOHN NICHOLLS, Senr, of Norfolk County Virginia …
Book I p. –(torn)–
(Abstracted from Original, See Box 1711-1755).
Dated 8 March 1743; Proved Apr. Court 1750
… appoint my Dearly Beloved Wife Alice Nicholls and my Beloved Son William Nicholls to be joynt Executrix and Executor …
… to my Beloved Son William Nicholls the Plantation whereon I now live and likewise the Plantation whereon he lives and all the Land that I am possessed off, to him, his Heirs or Assigns, after my Wifes Death, And if my Son John will live with my Son William, then to have my Negro Harry …
… my Daugr Sarah Seavell … But if my Son John will not live with my Son William, then William to build him a house on my Plantation where John likes …
… my Daugr Elizabeth Creekmur
… my Daugr Alice Seavell …
… my Daugr Mary Nicholls …
[p.258] … all my Children (Vizt) John Nicholls, William Nicholls, Alice Seavells, Elizabeth Creekmure, Sarah Seavells and Mary Nicholls …
Witnesses: Ralph Fenley.
John Gaman.
James Taylor.
his
James + Gamon.
mark.
his
John + Nicholls. Red Wax Seal.
mark.

I need some more info on this John and son William.

More families that had a lot of land dealings and were neighbors of William Nichols, Sr were Amos Atkinson, Able Thomas, Godfrey Stancil, David Hathaway and James Mayo.

Learning Land Records (Part 2)

Deeds form the bulk and backbone of American land records. They are fairly uniform in format and content, can normally be located in routinely predictable jurisdictions—usually the county—and generally present few difficulties for the average researcher. Being one of the most important components of the workaday civil law (as opposed to criminal law), deeds contain a fair measure of legal terms. Genealogy Encyclopedia provides definitions of land of legal terms.

The term “deed” can be used broadly to mean a legal document of transfer, bargain, or contract, or narrowly for a warranty deed by which the seller warrants (guarantees) the title to the land being sold. Deed books contain many types of title conveyances and contracts: deeds in fee simple granting absolute ownership, mortgages transferring property rights as security for a debt, dower releases waiving a wife’s rights, quitclaim deeds releasing whatever title or right is held whether valid or not, deeds of gift transferring land without a reciprocal consideration except perhaps “love and affection,” powers of attorney appointing legal agents, marriage property settlements between spouses either before or after the marriage, bills of sale transferring property that is usually not land, and various forms of contracts, such as leases, partnerships, indenture papers, and other performance bonds. These last four were not ordinarily recorded, though probate bonds were common in probate volumes. Deed books from before the Civil War and especially in colonial years were more miscellaneous in their contents, even including animal brands, occasional wills, slave manumissions, apprentice papers, petitions, depositions, tax lists, and whatever else the clerk decided to preserve on a convenient page.

European settlers and their governments brought to the colonies the principle that before land could be privately owned the government had to pass title into private hands. Thus, for any tract of land there should be a first-title deed, which is normally called a grant or patent. Usually the authorities sought from the local Indian tribes a cession of Indian title, though this concept of owning land was foreign to the Indian view of communal occupancy. Once the Indian title was terminated to the satisfaction of the whites, the government could grant title for a tract to an individual, corporation, or, in the case of federal grants, even to a state. All subsequent transfers of a tract are by deed or analogous conveyance, or by inheritance.

In the United States, responsibility for guaranteeing legal title rests with the buyer and seller, who nowadays usually employ professional title searchers and lawyers to trace the chain of title back to the first-title grant if possible, attempting to verify a valid, unencumbered title transfer at each step. The government limits itself to the role of a referee—supplying the rules, recording the results, and adjudicating disputes brought to court. To simplify such title searches, title abstract and insurance companies have arisen to make professional searches and sell insurance against defective titles. Such companies have compiled indexes to title transfers in their local areas. If a genealogist can afford the high expense, such a title company could compile an ancestor’s local land records. Also, there are cases where the local deed office has been destroyed recently but abstracts survive in the private title company records.

An important fact follows from the American system of deed registrations: The records are usually sought by the names of the buyer or seller rather than the tract name or number. This means that a break in the chain of recorded owners can complicate a genealogist’s understanding of why, in the absence of a deed, John Smith now owns land that Mary Smith owned ten years ago. The land could have passed from mother to son by will with proof only in the probate records, or it could have passed by intestate probate and not be recorded at all. It could also be that the two persons are unrelated and that Mary sold the land to Paul Williams, who then sold it to John Smith, neither of the deeds being recorded, perhaps to save the cost of the clerk’s fees. Or perhaps the deed from Mary Smith to John Smith was by sheriff’s sale and indexed under the sheriff’s name as seller. Such a sheriff’s sale for delinquent taxes raises the point that tax foreclosures affecting the land would be in court records, while a bankruptcy suit might be processed in another county entirely.

A registry system called Torrens attempts to resolve some of these problems. Named for Robert Richard Torrens, the South Australian legislator who developed it in the late 1850s, Torrens ideally records in one place under the title of the tract all former owners and all rights, interests, and liens to which the property is subject. Having established the registry as mandatory and complete, the government can then issue guaranteed certificates of title to a new owner. While available in about twenty states, Torrens has not operated in the United States as intended for several reasons, including constitutional questions of right of appeal to the courts, the great expense of the registration, inadequate insurance funds to insure title guarantees, the statutory exclusion of certain encumbrances from the Torrens records, and—it is said—sabotage by private title companies and lawyers fearing loss of business.

For the genealogist, the advantage of a Torrens chain of title may be offset where the deed indexes are by tract rather than buyer and seller, a situation said to operate in parts of Iowa. Usually there are two sets of indexes, one by tract and one by buyer and seller. If there are no buyer and seller indexes, the genealogist would need to search each tract record to insure comprehensive coverage of an ancestor’s land transactions in the county. However, Torrens has never flourished in the United States, so the chances are small that the researcher will encounter this particular problem.

The variety of records in deed books requires the user to develop certain searching and abstracting skills. Because few researchers have the time to read, page by page, the forty, fifty, or one hundred volumes of deeds in an average county or independent city, the user usually turns to the index. Seller indexes are also called direct and grantor indexes; buyer indexes are indirect and grantee indexes. Some counties have alphabetical indexes only for sellers, which requires reading all index entries from A to Z to check the buyers (for example, the buyers would be listed next to the sellers, but only the sellers are alphabetized). Before relying on a deed index, it is wise to make an informal sampling of the contents of the deed volumes to see if they contain records significantly different from deeds and if these different sorts of records are indexed along with the deeds. There actually exist deed volumes containing wills omitted from the deed index and not found in the probate indexes either.

While cumulative deed indexes are usually in alphabetical order (“alpha” order), running indexes cannot be because more names are continually being added. Some running indexes merely group surnames under their first letter (initial order), so all A surnames are together (unalphabetized), all B surnames together, etc., with special pages for Mc and O’. Occasionally, a clerk ignored the patronymic prefix and indexed MacDonald, for example, with D surnames and O’Carroll under C. More elaborate running indexes were sold commercially by companies vying for sales by inventing unique, eye-catching systems. Such complicated indexing systems must be mastered when encountered, though usually there are instructions in the front of the volume. Some allocate separate pages for vowels (surnames Ba, Be, Bi . . .), some for consonants (the l-m-n-r-t system brings Chalkley, Cullison, and Czeskleba to the same page, because each has an l as the first internal “key” letter). Some running indexes use an initial surname order subdivided by initial letters of the given name (so Gregory Buck, Gary Ball, and Gertrude Brown are all on the same page).

Other problems with indexes are sins of omission—creating only a grantor index, mistakenly omitting a name, or ignoring non-deed items. This last problem is fairly common, especially in alphabetized master-deed indexes compiling all the deed volumes of the last one hundred or two hundred years. Whether the indexer will consider the barrel brand of Thomas Forehall, cooper, worth indexing is doubtful, especially because it was recorded 150 years ago and can serve no contemporary purpose. The researcher must always choose between trusting the index or checking the book or needed years page by page. Deeds with more than one buyer or seller may be indexed under the first’s name only, another reason to take the time to read page by page if the problem warrants it. There is also the occasional deed that provides information on a surname different from either the seller or buyer. On 7 May 1763, William and Betty Eskridge of Northumberland County, Virginia, sold land to Thomas Williams and, in passing, the deed gave a beautiful account of the Neale family, former owners of the land.

Having found an actual entry in the deed volume, either by using the index or by page-by-page scanning, you should have a fairly standard format for abstracting entries. It is wise to train yourself to first write down the source (or, if you have photocopied the entry, to immediately write the source on the photocopy). The source includes the archive or library where you found the record, as well as the record type, volume, and page. Below are three examples. Printed notekeeping forms help some people remember to copy such sources. Be sure also to include your name and the date when you found the record.

As for abstracting a deed, the style is up to the researcher. Find a format you like and try to standardize it within adaptable limits. Records tend to follow standard formats, which makes abstracting easier.

Some users forget that the deed book is a copy of an original paper and that, therefore, the deed book signatures are usually in the clerk’s handwriting—they are not holographs. Some jurisdictions, however, did require a signature on the copy they retained, so watch for them. Likewise, the seal—in wax and later in paper—beside the seller’s signature was real on the original; but, in the deed book, the clerk drew a stylized circle surrounding the word “seal.” The use of personal wax seals has long been out of fashion; but in the colonies, men were expected to have or borrow some sort of sealing device, which usually supplemented the illiterate’s mark. Even English peasants as early as the thirteenth century were required by law to seal their signatures; in fact, there was a time when the seal was the official attestation and the person’s mark was auxiliary. By the late seventeenth century, the seal was merely a traditional ornament. Consequently, heraldic devices on colonial seals probably do not prove a signer had a coat or arms. In fact, George Washington had a seal with a device different from the family coat of arms, a fairly typical situation.

Seals and signatures are, however, minor problems compared to late recording. Since running indexes show names in chronological order, a 1735 deed recorded in 1802 is so out of place that the researcher may not carry the search far enough to spot it. Actual examples include a deed dated 31 March 1800 and recorded 21 March 1896 in Montgomery County, Georgia, with another in the same place dated 30 December 1791 and recorded 110 years later on 30 July 1901. In the same general category are deeds re-recorded after a courthouse or town hall burned. Also be alert to indexes that show only the recording date, because behind the 1827 date could be an 1818 deed. If the ancestor died in 1823, the researcher might mistakenly conclude from the index that an 1827 deed could not be the ancestor’s.

Learning Land Records (Part 1)

Land records provide two types of important evidence for the genealogist. First, they often state kinship ties, especially when a group of heirs jointly sells some inherited land. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. By locating people with reference to creeks and other natural features, the deeds, land grants, and land tax lists help distinguish one John Anderson, son of Mark, from another John Anderson in the same county. Prior to the Civil War, most free adult males owned land; so if the land records of an area have survived but do not mention your ancestor, you should reevaluate the assumption that he or she lived in the area.

Most beginning genealogists underestimate the importance of using land records to pin persons to specific locales. In the South, which has far fewer vital records than New England, the land records are even more crucial to genealogical success.

Many of the land records mentioned in this series have been microfilmed and some are transcribed online. The Genealogical Society of Utah includes state land grants and county and some city deeds among its routinely microfilmed records. The society formerly microfilmed deed books only up to 1850, later up to the Civil War, and still later—in some cases but not all—the subsequent volumes. Sometimes cumulative deed indexes exist but were not microfilmed. Thus, despite the society’s vast number of land records on microfilm, you should not regard its catalog as a complete inventory of what survives.

Other microfilmed records belong to libraries and archives that have made their manuscript collections of private land company papers and other records available. The millions of federal land patents have also been microfilmed and are available through the Bureau of Land Management

Next Article: Learning about Land Records: Deeds

Learning Probate Records (Part 7)

Despite their usefulness, probate records are filled with traps for the unwary genealogist. The first pitfall is contemporary law. Probate is a function of state authority, with only one federal prohibition: primogeniture, or passing a landed estate automatically to the eldest son, is forbidden; by 1811, all former colonies had revoked it by statute. Because probate is a state function, probate procedures vary from state to state and have changed over time.

It is useful to know what laws were in effect in a state at the time an ancestor lived there. Tracing the history of a law is not difficult. Most law libraries are open for public use. A call before you go can verify public access, hours of operation, availability of copy machines, and fees (if any).

In addition to the pitfalls presented by ignorance of legal language and past laws, another problem may arise if a researcher concentrates only on the case files or probate packet. You should not overlook other records leading to probate which appear among the records of other courts. For example, the Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania was responsible for hearing evidence of incompetency and determining the status of such individuals.

Also available at law libraries are the state law codes. To locate a law effective when you ancestor was alive, check the current law code (dower rights, for instance, or age when a minor could make a will). Get the reference to the next earliest code when the law was changed or modified and work backward in time until you find the law as it was.

Although this process seems tedious, it is sometimes necessary and nearly always illuminating. The law determines the specifics in much of the probate process. Court officials do not explain what they are doing or their reasons for acting in a certain way in the records. They expect you to know that already. The law also determined the ages at which your ancestors could transact legal business.

When courthouse fires have occurred, these other court documents may have survived if they were filed in other buildings or kept among the personal papers of justices or court officials. Some of these records are used legally in lieu of probate processes.

Another problem is that New England demographic research comparing wills and probate inventories with tax rolls and other inhabitants’ lists shows that less than fifty percent of the male population was included among inventories and less than forty percent left wills. In some areas, the percentage was below twenty-five percent. Less than ten percent of the women had either wills or inventories. While some people had little or no property to inventory, a substantial number seem to have deliberately made provision for their estates to pass to their heirs without probate.

Probate records are of uneven value when it comes to establishing specific death dates. Some probate records include the date of death. Some indexes include the date of death, while the probate record does not. Where the death date is not given, the date of the acknowledgment of witnesses is usually the first record made in the probate process, followed by admission of the will to probate. In some jurisdictions, however, the witnesses acknowledged their signatures and certified the mental soundness of the testator at the time the will was drafted—not after the person’s death. To avoid these problems, the safest date to use is the date the will was recorded—between thirty and ninety days after the death of the testator.

Relationships between legatees and testator were seldom defined. As a consequence, brothers and nephews are mistaken for sons, sisters-in-law and daughters-in-law appear as unmarried daughters, and daughters with unknown married names may be unidentifiable. The legatees sometimes are mentioned by first names only. “In-law” was often a synonym for “step” and adopted kin. Because of these ambiguities, it is wise to corroborate all relationships with other sources.

Probate records can provide valuable leads to those relationships. Here are some clues:

1. In states that allowed the eldest son a double portion of his father’s estate, an estate with seven shares had six heirs, not seven.
2. Daughters unmarried at the time a will was drafted may have been married by the time it was probated. The will and subsequent documents will contain different names. Watch given names carefully and always check all males listed in the final settlement, especially if they are not listed in the will as potential sons-in-law.
3. Statements such as “my daughters Mary and Martha shall have five shillings each with what I have already given them” and “my daughter Grace shall have £30 to make her equal with her sisters” imply that some daughters were married and had already received their portions.
4. Special terminology may reveal relationships: “a femme sole” is an unmarried woman; “coverture” refers to a married woman.
5. Where two executors are named in a will, one is usually the relative of the testator and the other a relative of the spouse. Both sides of the family were represented to safeguard the interests of all parties and to keep peace.
6. Bondsmen are usually relatives who are willing to stand the risks and who have some leverage over the persons they guarantee. If the wife is executrix, the bondsmen will usually be her relatives. Where her maiden surname is unknown, look carefully at the names of the bondsmen.
7. Guardians are usually relatives who have no potential interest in the estate. With some careful calculations, you can decide who these would be and perhaps identify missing surnames.
8. When the court has to determine who inherits, unless extenuating circumstances dictate otherwise, the estate is usually awarded to heirs of the whole blood (related by blood to both sides of the family) rather than an heir of the half blood (related to one side only). In this way, the property is more likely to stay in the family.
9. Second marriages of widows are most frequently documented among probate and guardianship records, as their new husbands assume responsibilities of the estate. This makes probate records especially valuable.

Sometimes, family members are omitted from a will because they are otherwise provided for. A man can settle a jointure on his wife at the beginning of the marriage in lieu of dower rights or subsequent claims against the estate. During colonial times, when the law of primogeniture was in effect, the eldest son was frequently not mentioned in the will, for the real property descended automatically to him if the estate was entailed. Most American men also owned other lands in fee simple which could be described and left to younger sons.

As daughters married, they were customarily given their portions in cash, land, household furnishings, food, horses, slaves, etc. Sons were given their property when they reached majority or planned to marry. A family account book recorded the property conveyed to each child. If, when the father’s estate was later settled, a child contested the settlement, this account showed what each marriage portion was. Thus, children who had received their shares were frequently omitted from the will.

Learning Probate Records (Part 6)

What happens when someone dies and there estate goes into probate? What is the Process?

Since the procedures followed in both testate and intestate cases are almost identical, both can be considered together. Most states require that probate begin the first term of court following the death of a property owner, between thirty and ninety days after death.

1. Usually, the principal heir petitions the court for authority to begin the probate process. Until recent years these petitions were made verbally and recorded only in the probate minute books. However, some jurisdictions require written petitions bearing the names of all heirs, their residences, and their ages; these are filed with the original estate papers. Such petitions are especially valuable because they may be the only documents that list all the heirs.

In a testate estate, the executor petitions for letters testamentary or authority to probate the will. In an intestate case, the surviving spouse or oldest son normally petitions for letters of administration or authority to administer the estate according to the laws of the jurisdiction. It is the responsibility of the executor or the administrator to look out for the best interest of the estate, the needs of the heirs, and the claims of the creditors.

2. Proving the will is a step that applies only to testate cases. The document is presented to the court. The witnesses to the will appear and attest that they saw the individual sign the will, that he or she was in sound mental condition and that he or she expressed his or her own free will. The court, after hearing this sworn testimony, will order that the will be recorded. Wills judged invalid are not proved and, hence, are not recorded in the will book but can often be found among the loose or miscellaneous papers of the courthouse or town hall. They will not appear in the index to probate records, and they are rarely microfilmed. You have to ask for these records to be searched at the courthouse.

Some jurisdictions require that all heirs of the estate be notified and present at the reading and recording of the will. Anyone who would argue against the admission of the will to probate may make claim then or generally forfeit any future right to contest the will.

3. The executor designated in the decedent’s will must be formally approved by the court. In intestate cases, the court appoints the administrator. Each state prescribes the order in which persons are entitled to be appointed, but, in general, this order is maintained: spouse, one of the children, parents, grandparents, brothers or sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, great-uncles, great-aunts, first cousins, creditors, anyone legally competent, public administrators, etc.

4. An administrator must post a bond equal to the worth of the assets of the estate to insure his or her faithful performance of duty and to protect the heirs in cases of misconduct. In most states, an executor is not required to file a large bond if the decedent’s will exempts him or her from that trust.

Bondsmen were usually relatives or family friends until recently, when bonding companies replaced personal sureties. If the wife is executrix, the bondsmen will usually be her relatives. If a brother or son is executor, they will be chosen from the family of the deceased. Bondsmen can also be heirs to the estate.

5. In most testate and all intestate estates, three disinterested people (often relatives who are not potential heirs) are appointed by the court to inventory and appraise all the property of the estate. They are usually ordered to submit the inventory at the next term of court or within ninety days. This inventory protected the executor or administrator from excessive claims against the estate and protected heirs against fraud or pilfering of their inheritance. The court also used it to set probate fees, as in modern practice. As a result, the values given to each item were close to current market value, although there seems to have been a tendency to keep them low. Thus, the fees levied against the estate were lower and the sale of items at auction was ensured.

6. As soon as the inventory is made, publication of the pending probate is published. In early times, notices were tacked on the doors of courthouses, town halls, churches, etc. Later, the court required public posting at the town hall and publication three successive weeks in the major county, town, or district newspaper before probate to give interested parties opportunity to be present to voice disagreement or to present claims against the estate. The law required preservation of those publication notices. Some jurisdictions keep copies of the newspapers in which notices appeared at the county courthouse or town hall, while others clip the notices and preserve them with the case packet. It is thus possible to find missing issues of newspapers at the probate authority.

7. Another step taken before probate begins is assigning an allowance for the dependents from a portion of the estate (usually the amount is determined annually) until the estate is settled and distributed. It may take the form of cash, income-producing property (such as a herd of cattle), or money from the court-authorized sale of certain property. Usually the property so designated is exempt from creditors’ claims. At this time, also, the widow’s dower right will often be set off to provide for her support.

8. In estates involving minors or incompetent individuals, a guardian is appointed to receive and assume stewardship over their respective shares. As with administrators and executors, guardians must post a bond equal to the worth of the orphan’s estate.

9. To raise funds for the support of the widow and children or to convert perishables to cash, it is frequently necessary to conduct periodic sales of property under the surveillance of the court. First, the administrator/executor or guardian petitions the court for authority to sell, stipulating the items, why the income is needed, and how much is expected to be realized. If the court authorizes the sale, a public auctioneer is appointed and a careful account is kept of what was sold, how much each item brought, and to whom the item went.

10. In some jurisdictions, executors/administrators or guardians must account annually to the court for income received and expenses paid out of the estate, and for what purposes. In others, executors may only be required to account upon request from heirs or creditors. Because these records show heirs who die and women who marry before final settlement, they are extremely valuable for the genealogist.

11. Prior to the final settlement and distribution of the estate among the heirs, additional publication notices are issued to give claimants one last chance to voice their desires.

12. The executor/administrator must make a final accounting of receipts and disbursements of the estate before the remaining property can be divided and the responsibility ended.

13. When all parties concerned come to an agreement or when all heirs are twenty-one years of age, the property is divided and distributed to those heirs entitled to receive it; the case is closed; and the executor/administrator is released. In many probate jurisdictions, lengthy division documents will be found listing all heirs and their addresses, husbands of female heirs, and second marriages of widows. In some states, these settlement documents are found in the office of the land recorder—Division of Real Estate.

14. As each heir receives his or her portion of the estate, he or she signs a receipt or release to the executor/administrator. These receipts give the name of the heir, the amount and description of property received, the name of the executor/administrator, the names of guardians of minor children, and the name of the deceased. These releases are filed among the original estate papers.

Probate records can provide an intimate glimpse into the lifestyle of an ancestor and specific facts about the family. From wills you can discover how often the men on your pedigree entrusted their assets to a wife, whether all sons inherited equally, how the daughters fared in comparison, whether a man distributed his property to his children before his death, and who was instructed to care for the widow and younger children or for incapacitated or handicapped family members. Servants were sometimes released by will and slaves freed.

What provision was made for the widow? Was firewood delivered to her door? Were living quarters and a cash allowance for needed purchases provided? Did the allowance end on remarriage? What was to happen to her portion of the estate if she remarried?

What are the demographics of your family? Who lived in the household? What was the ratio of adults to children, males to females? Did the men live to see their grandchildren? Did the women outlive the men? How many children reached adulthood before their parents died? What were the sizes of your family units? What standard of living did your family have? Did they read and write? Did a bequest include paintings, a family Bible, fine furniture, a carriage, or musical instruments?

Also revealed in a will is biographical information: title, occupation, religious affiliation, age, place of residence, place of property ownership, associates of the family, and relationship to prominent families in the area.

Did your ancestor bequeath assets to charities, such as schools, hospitals, and churches? Did he make a contribution for the upkeep of roads and bridges? Did she support a political party?

How did your ancestor speak? Indications of local dialect and pronunciation can be found in spelling variants, especially when a will is a holograph. It can also reveal personality, character, and level of formal education.

The probate inventory gives other insights into your family’s life and how your family compared to others in the community. If items are listed room by room and the rooms labeled, you know who slept where. A man was often judged by the kind of bed he slept in, so inventories usually listed bed and bedding in considerable detail: bed curtains imply a canopied bed to keep out cold drafts. Featherbeds, sheets, coverlets, blankets, and spreads may also be listed separately.

Table linens may be listed (damask, diaper, flaxen, canvas); cooking utensils and dishes (pewter, wood, china, porcelain, silverplate, brass); lighting (candles, lamps, wicks, lantern glass, and lighter fluids). In poor households, a clock might represent almost a quarter of the estate’s total value. Pots and pans may be valued by weight, since that is the way they were bought and sold. Unfamiliar items, such as kimblins, piggins, and eshons (cheese vats and presses), may appear.

The processes of cooking, brewing, baking, dairying, and washing are described in the kinds of utility tubs and bowls used. The presence of smoothing tables or boards and flat irons indicate that clothes were ironed before wearing, and bedding may also have been “smoothed.” Sanitary facilities inside the house could consist of chamber pots and close stools, often both. The larder hints at diet—butter, cheese, ham, bacon, hanging beef, salt pork, potatoes. Particular trades or occupations emerge from tools, mercantile inventory, record books, contents of barns, granaries, and crops in the field.

A comparison of inventories from one generation of the family to another will show improvements in living conditions—from fireplace cooking to stoves, from enclosed bedsteads to heated bedrooms, from wooden platters to china. Glass in windows, unless bequeathed as heirlooms to a family member, could be sold separately from a house, so panes may be listed in the inventory as well.

Sometimes an item will be missing from an inventory because the owner gave it away before his or her death, because it was sold to cover debts prior to death, or because it is specified in the will and falls in the executor’s charge. Some inventories will end with “things unseen or forgotten,” a category with an arbitrary dollar value assigned.

An inventory is also useful for distinguishing between persons of the same name by matching inventory contents, such as horses, cattle, and pigs, with tax rolls and agricultural census entries. You can also prove the relationship between a man and his children with property, real or personal, listed in inventories and wills from one generation to the next.

NEXT IN PART 7: American Probate Law

Next Page »