It's definitely worth the effort to learn how to search these books since they almost certainly document all property transactions (and much more) from the time that the county came into existence to the present. One detail that you occasionally find is a death date. If a person dies whose is a property owner, that person's death must be proved to the Register of Deeds before the title to his/her property can be transferred. Hence the recording of the deed transfer will include at least the date of death and may in some instances include a death certificate. Here in Allegheny County (PA), there are 3 sets of books. The largest set contains copies of the deeds in numeric order by book number and page number. The other 2 sets are indices, "direct" and "ab sectum." The direct index books list all recordings by the name of the "grantor." The grantor is the person(s) who hold the current deed. The ab sectum index books list all recordings by the name of the "grantee." The grantee is the person(s) to whom the deed is being assigned. Each entry in both sets if index books shows the names of all of the grantors, grantees, and the book and page number where the deed may be found. Here the index books are in groups covering a modest time span, typically 11 years for the more recent time blocks and longer spans for the earlier ones. Both the indices and deed books fully cover all years back to 1788 when Allegheny County was created. The index books here are not strictly alphabetical, but rather the Russell Index system is used. That is the system which includes the Soundex codes; it was invented here in Pittsburgh so we find it everywhere whereas you may not. I hope this is helpful. By the way, the mortgages are indexed and organized in a comparable way in the same offices. Don [1]http://www.DonsList.net - Always free, always fast [2]http://New.DonsList.net - Recently added On 03/08/12, Bart Hansen<vestby@gmail.com> wrote: Kim mentioned the basement and the sets of books. I went there about six years ago and found the whole process somewhat difficult. The room was swarming with para-legals and, according to one I spoke with, crooks looking to find properties to sell that they don't own. But if you can master the system of back and forth lookups between two sets of ledger books you can find a property's history. I think the secret is trying to charm one of the clerks into giving you more than a 10 second explanation of the system. It is fun, though, to find the histories of where your ancestors lived, for how long and whether they owned or rented the houses. Bart ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [3]COOK-CO-IL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message References 1. http://www.DonsList.net/ 2. http://New.DonsList.net/ 3. mailto:COOK-CO-IL-request@rootsweb.com