Genealogy: Finding Your Folks

Researching deeds in Georgia

By Judy Fowler Kilgore
Genealogy Columnist

Judy Fowler Kilgore is the religion editor and genealogy columnist for The Citizen. She regrets that time does not permit her to do personal family research for others. She may be reached at jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

If you haven’t yet arrived at the “land search” phase of your genealogy research, you have some real treats in store. It takes a while to get there, but when the names on the censuses run out, when members of your family are relegated to “01001-20011,” when you have exhausted all other resources and still are stuck, you head for the courthouse and into a whole new world.

There is something really awesome about finding the exact place your ancestors once lived and farmed. And land research can give you more details than you might realize.

Witnesses to deeds were usually family members, neighbors and friends. The dates on deeds can tell you when your ancestor was in a certain place. Other details can bring other surprises. Just last week I found, of all things, mention of a prenuptial agreement stuck among the fancy words and phrases of a simple land transfer.

Finding your ancestor’s land in Georgia is a snap, thanks to the system set up in the very beginning.

If you remember the column on land lotteries, you remember we learned that back in the early 1800s, after the land was officially obtained and designated as a county, government surveyors came in and surveyed the land, plotting it out into numbered districts and land lots. Well, those land lot and district numbers have not changed in nearly 200 years.

With a map showing those districts and land lots and a copy of the deed (or even just a description of the land), you can be standing on your ancestor’s farm in no time.

County maps with land lots may be obtained at the courthouse in the county where your ancestor’s land was located and, today, many are online. Check the GenWeb sites for your particular county.

First, you have to determine exactly where the land was, in what district and in what land lot. And for that, you need a deed or description. These will be found in the courthouse and are freely available to the public. You will find a description of the land in the index books to “grantors” (those who sold the land) and “grantees” (those who bought the land).

The index also tells where the land was located (district and land lot), the number of acres it involved, the date the deal was actually made (called the date of instrument), filed and recorded with the court, and in which deed book and on what page number it was recorded. The index books are arranged alphabetically and it’s easy to find a list of all persons with a certain surname who transferred land in that county.

While the index may give you enough information to find the land, looking at the deed books may be necessary for more detail.

I have found two deeds transferring the same amount of land in the same land lot and district on the same day. However, a look at the deed itself revealed that one transaction was for the west half and the other for the east half, each granted to two different sons.

The deed also reveals where the person lived. You may find a deed which says, “This indenture made ... between Robert Smith of Pike County ... and Herman Jones of Fayette County ...”

Sometimes the deed was recorded in another county, in addition to the one where the land was located. When I found my Robert Boyd’s first land purchase in Meriwether County, it was also filed in Elbert County, because it was part of the estate of a man who had died there (John Butler) but who owned the land in Meriwether. As it turned out, this other person had drawn the land in the 1827 Land Lottery, another surprise which was written into the deed.

Deeds also may tell you the county in which the land was originally located. Some deeds for Fayette, in describing the land, say, “ ... in originally Henry, now Fayette County ...” or for Meriwether, “in originally Troup, now Meriwether County ...”

Sometimes the deeds are hard to read and the wording is particularly “flowery,” but once you read one, they pretty much all say the same thing and use the same phraseology. When I have stumbled over something I couldn’t read, I have often referred to another deed I had already transcribed to see if the wording in a particular phrase might be the same. It usually was, particularly if it was a deed from the same county at about the same time. Different clerks in different counties had their own style and phrasing, but all adhered basically to the same wording.

Since I have become so history-minded lately, I couldn’t help but think that this wording was probably handed down by tradition from legal documents in Europe.

In addition to courthouses, the Georgia Archives has deed records on microfilm. But it’s a lot more fun to see the actual deeds at the courthouse.

Deed research can certainly be an eye-opener and can reveal much information about families, their comings and goings, and their deals among themselves. It also can give you goose bumps. When I finally pinpointed my Robert Boyd’s land in Meriwether and actually drove down there, I got out of the car and tried to imagine what Sullivan Road had been like in 1834. It was probably no more than a dirt path. My tire tracks were probably right over his long-ago wagon tracks. And I believe there was once a ferry at the end of the road, taking people across the Flint River into Pike County.

Doing genealogy is one thing. Living it is another. And deed research can almost make your ancestors come alive.

I appreciate and welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!