Are you ready to take your genealogy training wheels off? It's time to start researching in U.S.
land records. They're a little bit challenging, so make sure that you have
some basic genealogy skills before you dive into these records. But once you're ready,
FamilySearch makes it relatively easy to dive into these records about dirt and property. Howdy,
and welcome to Family History Fanatics, where we love to help you climb your family tree
and have a lot of fun along the way. Now for the purposes of this videos, we're going to focus on
U.S. land records because property records vary across the globe. So we're going to focus on U.S.
land records. There are a lot of land records. Warrants, bounty lands, and things of that nature.
This video is going to focus on deeds. Now what I like about deeds is that they are typically kept
at the county level. There are some deeds that are kept at the township level, but for this video,
we're going to focus on the fact that you can find them at the county level. But don't worry, the way
you find the records is going to be the same on FamilySearch regardless if you're going for
township level records or county records. Now I've been talking a lot about John Townley and whether
he is connected to the folks in Essex County, New Jersey. So, we're going to type in Essex
County, New Jersey. And try to find the land records for that location. Type in Essex,
New Jersey. And there we have it. Now you can do New Jersey - comma - Essex, but I'm going
to put the county - comma - this state. Click on the option it gives me. And click SEARCH.
And then I'm going to scroll down until I find something that says,
"Land and Property." I want you to focus on deeds. Now you are on the catalog entry. And what we're
really super excited about when we're researching from home is when we see a camera icon. That means
we can look at these records from home. If we don't see the camera icon. If the camera has a
key. Or if it is a book or a microfilm reel, then we're just going to stop there. And make a note of
what we want to look at when we go to a Family History Library Research Center for the keys
or the actual Family History Library in Salt Lake for those microfilms. However,
this is a camera icon, which means we can actually look at the deeds right here. What are we looking
at first? Now I know a lot of researchers that teach you how to research land records, tell
you the difference between Grantor and grantee. And in the Show Notes. I will explain it to you.
But for the purpose of this video. And for the purpose of your research.
Who cares? Search BOTH indexes. I have sometimes found that my ancestor is recorded incorrectly.
Sometimes they're recorded in the Grantee Index, and they really should be over in the Grantor. So,
just save yourself a heartache and just look at both indexes. So, we're looking for Townley. So,
we're looking for the indexes grantor (or grantee. It doesn't matter.) we're going to look for
the deeds. So, here is a series of indexes for 1688 to 1859. Then I'm going to look at that one.
So now we have the film strip very similar to if we were looking at the microphone reader/,
but we can do it in our jammies! So, what we're going to do is first figure out how this index
is organized. So, we jumped in here to the first page. Zooming on in. And we've are. Remember this
entry. If you ever forget, because I do sometimes, click on INFORMATION. And then right down there,
at the bottom, it tells you "Deed Index, Grantee T through Z." So, you would expect the T used to
be at the beginning, and the z used to be towards the end of this collection. And you can click that
arrow. And it will go away. So, we have Tabor. Let's go one more page for forward. And now we're
at Talmage. So, they're doing. They're doing an alphabetical by last name and first. Yeah,
last name and first couple of initials. And then the first names are broken down over here.
And this is a Grantee Index. So, the names are sorted over here on the left. And then over
there on the right, is the person doing the other part of the transaction. So, what do we do next?
Well, I'm going to go look for Townleys. How are we going to do that? Well, T-o-n,
T-o-w is a little bit further down. So, we're just going to go forward. Maybe, I don't know - 65.
We're in Tuttle. So, we've gone too far. We need to go back. So, just enter numbers in this image
to go backward and forward. Hooray, we're in the Townleys. Now we want to go to the first entry of
those Townleys and grab all the folks. So, we're gonna go page forward. And notice the year over
here. That's how we know we're at the beginning of this little section. Notice that this last name is
t-o-u-n-l-e-y. You want to check for variations of spelling in land records. You might be missing
important records if you don't pick up those last names that you.. So, here's
t-o-w- t-o-u-n-l-e-y. Jonathan. 1839. That could be an entry that I'm looking for.
Richard with that same last name. And I'm scrolling through. And I'm looking for anything
that may have Townley on it. But what I wanted to point out to you at the bottom of this page.
Notice it said "Continued in Series Number 2." Well, if we go back to the index, of the indexes.
We had Series Number One. And we were looking at in Series Number Two. So, it's telling you if you
want to continue with those last names, you pop down there. So, here we have the
t-o-w-n-l-y, -t-o-w-n-l-e-y. So, I'm looking for Effingham. Well,
here's an Effingham and a George. I'm going to keep that entry in mind.
And I'm going to go scroll forward another page. And notice I'm looking in this column
for Effingham. Now I'm a little frustrated because I can't find the one I'm looking for.
If that happens to you, go ahead and check the Grantor Index and see if they show up there. But
some of the other names that are popping out, of interest to me are Richard. I definitely want to
look at Richard Townley. There's a Caleb Townley- same time period. Particularly Caleb B Townley.
That is very important to me. So, let's go to the. Now, we're looking at the Grantee Index. We're
going to go look at the Grantor Index this time. This time it's the last name Z in the Series One
of Grantor. I'm going to go through the process again. It was about 45 is when we found it. So,
let's see. So, it took me until image 114 to find the Townleys in the Grantor section
side of things! But once again, we're going to look for Effingham. Effingham - John Townley
in 1805. That's a little earlier than what I want to look for. But maybe it's a great-grandfather.
That's something I'm going to look at in the future. Continued means it's on this next page.
Now here's an Effingham - John Jr to Zaddock. That's interesting. We get to this one in 1834.
Effingham and Richard Townley to a Jacob Geiger. Now it's important that you pay attention to the
clues that are hanging out in these record collections. And you research a fan club.
I'm not going to cover too much of that here in this video. Be sure to check out my video where I
talk about using land records with your, with your brick wall challenges. But for now, I really want
to look at this record. So, how am I going to do that? Well, that's when you need to get a notepad,
or you need to grab something to keep track of the information here on this record. So 1834, we want
to write that down. Effingham and Richard Townley. That extra that & and et al. That's et alia,
meaning there's more people names. We want to write down the name Jacob Geiger. And
then we want to look at the P3 - 7. What does that mean? We need to go to column headings.
So, P3 is the book. Page 7. Now how do we get to our land record? Well,
that's when we've got to go back to that Catalog Index. And we need to get out of the
Deed Index and go down to the Deeds. We're looking for book P as in Peter,
and the number 3. So, that's P, but that's not the right year because we went the year 1834.
Now every collection is different. So, don't assume that Essex is going to be the same as any
other place in the United States. But you get the idea you. Could need to line up the book number
or the book identification. Here's P3. And then we need to go to Page
7. What you want to do is you'll come into this film strip view. And sometimes the number is 35.
Sometimes the number is 335. What I like to do is go to the first image.
And it says P3. I want to go to an image that has a number on it. So this, in this case,
the number is 3. See that 3 right there? So, if I'm going to go to seven. I can just zip
through right here. But let's say we were going to 250. Well, I know that they're doing two pages
per image. So, it will be around image number 125. And then I'll have to go forward or back.
But that will help me jump to the number. But I need to go to seven. And I'm at seven.
And I have now found Richard Townley, executor, to Jacob Geiger. And now I can start diving into
the land records. Find out all the cool details that is in this record. Why isn't Effingham's
name up there? Et al? Well, he's deceased. And what other names are in this record? I will put
in the Show Notes a link to the image so you can discover who else is hiding in this record. Now
when you find this record belongs to your family, you can attach this record to your family tree.
That way, you can keep track of your images. You can keep track of your citations.
And you can come back and do some more detective work or advanced genealogy transcriptions and
things a little bit later. So, we're going to attach it to the tree. Super easy. Click ATTACH.
And then I like to modify the title a little bit. Instead of it being the full collection.
I know this is in 1834. So, I'm just going to edit 1834.
And I'm going to leave Essex County, New Jersey, because it's a deed in 1834 Essex County,
New Jersey. Now with your notes! I have to stress this! You can transcribe key information
from this record to the notes part. DON'T put your Reason Statements here. If you
haven't learned about Reason Statements, go to the Show Notes. There will a video that is linked to
in the description. And there'll be more content where you can learn about Reason Statements.
For the purposes of this video, Reason Statements are going to come a little bit later.
But you can put notes right here. Things to help you remember, you know, how much was it sold
for? What were the dates? Who were the parties involved? What was this the land description? So,
you can put your information right here in notes because it won't change. And I'll show you what
that means in a minute. Okay, the other thing is sometimes you won't be able to link this to
everybody. I don't really know who Jacob Geiger is at this moment. But I may discover, Oh wait,
Richard and Effingham- father and son. Jacob is a cousin!" Well, in the next step,
I'm not going to be able to attach it to Jacob. But I do want to use this record and make it super
easy for me to attach the source. So, what I need to do is do "Add to Source Box." When I do that,
then I'll be able to reuse this source again. Click NEXT to select a person. And
now I need to find Richard Townley. He could be already up here in my recent folks section.
Or I can choose Effingham. In this case, I'm going to choose Effingham. And then I'm going to grab
his son Richard. So, you will be able to link if they are spouses, children, parents, or siblings.
That little cluster will show up. So, here is the main person, his wife, his children, his parents,
and his siblings. But you won't be able to do a cousin. You're gonna have to make sure you do
that Source Box, which is why I told you to use the Source Box just a second ago. Click NEXT.
And now you can write your Reason Statement. Why am I attaching this? Well, this is the deed that
documents that Richard is selling a property of Effingham to a man named John Geiger. And I'm
attaching this because it gives me more evidence that Richard is Effingham's son. Then you can go
ahead and click ATTACH. And then, this record will be attached to the FamilySearch Family Tree. Now
I want to go to the FamilySearch Family Tree and see that that I attached it to this person. At the
bottom of this chronologically sourced timeline. Have you figured out how to add the dates? So, you
can have a chronologically sourced timeline that's another video. So, the chronologically sourced
timeline +going to make a change, and this is why I stressed so much- DON'T put important details
in that Reason Statement box. Let me show you what I've already done. This is an an image that hasn't
been indexed yet. We already figured that out. These were the notes that I pulled out from the
record. They won't change. They won't change. But the Reason Statement, as soon as I make an edit,
the Reason Statement will go away. So, if you made a mistake and you want to keep your Reason
Statement, before you hit edit, do a Control+C for copy. And then you can go ahead and hit edit,
and then you see right there it's blank. So, I can do a Control+V or Command+V if you're on Apple.
Now we keep the Reason Statement. And we can change the date. So, I want to change the
date to 1834. Click the Standardized Date. And then I can put in that. And note and the reason
it was changed. And hit SAVE. And now, instead of being at the bottom, it's up there in 1834.
So I hope that helps you understand the mechanics of diving into land records over on FamilySearch.
It's not as scary as it seems. And you don't need to get bogged down in too many legal descriptions.
Right now, the number one step for you to do is try to find your ancestor in these records and
attach those records to the FamilySearch Family Tree. If you have any further questions about
that, be sure to put your comments in the comments section. And if you want to learn more about
researching on FamilySearch, I want to check out this playlist. And if you want something new,
check out that video right there. So, we're gonna go in for T Townley. I'm looking for Town Townley.