Land records

What land records exist?

• Maps

• Deeds
• Land grants
• Surveys and processioning reports.
  • Processioning verifies the boundaries of a tract by physically walking the borders and updating metes and bounds. Example: is the big pile of rocks still there? Has the creek changed its watercourse? Did the big red oak fall down?
• Estate files to apportion land among heirs Mortgages, where land is leased, bought and sold.
• Court records: disputes, failure to pay taxes, condemnations, petitions.
• Tax lists. Sometimes by payer, sometimes in order of property (contiguity).
• Homestead exemptions to be relieved of paying taxes.
• Dower land examinations, where a wife was questioned to be sure she didn’t object to selling land that would become her place to live after her husband died.

Genealogical info in land records

• Time and place a person was present.
• Generally, people lived on the land, did not travel far to marry, go to church or be buried.
• Legal documents over a period of time with dates.
• Who else is in the neighborhood?  Clue to FAN club (Friends, Associates, Neighbors).
• Family groups stayed together.
• Evidence of the age of people, named relatives, inferred relationships.
• Deeds may have descriptive information, especially familial relationships.

Chatham County Register of Deeds

Access to Chatham County land records is through this portal maintained by the Register of Deeds.

On the page is a download file that gives good directions on how to use the tool to search old records.

• Search old letter deeds by grantor or grantee first, find the reference to the Deed, then search the images of the deeds.
• Oldest deeds are Letter deeds.

Chatham County GIS records

County GIS records permit the search of land records from today backward, whereas land grants start in the “then” and progress to “now.” If you know the area where your family lived (or your research interest), you might be able to backtrack and combine other genealogy research with the land records. Access the Chatham County GIS page is through this page.

Maps

There are many very good NC maps available that cover all its time periods.

• For your personal research, start at NCGS (no need to sign in). Read the detail on the various types of information available.
• County boundaries changed over time, so see the interactive map at the Newberry Library.
• Sanborn fire insurance maps were very detailed and available at the UNC Library. There are no maps for Chatham County or its two cities, but nearby counties are covered.