Deeds of Houston Co., GA: Part 1. The CGGS has published 5 volumes of Deed Abstracts from the beginning of the county in 1821, up to 1840. If you are researching your ancestors in this time period, these books can save you a lot of time. Most of the major genealogy libraries have these books, and they are also available thru the CGGS. Davine V. Campbell & the late William R. Henry have provided a valuable asset for Houston County researchers by compiling these excellent books. Any county that is considering abstracting and publishing the Land Records for their county, would do well to emulate the first-class research that these 5 books contain. Houston County Deed indexes are some of the worst in the State of Georgia. What I am referring to, are the 4 books which index the Deeds from 1821 to 1943. You start out with the surname's first and second letter, and then proceed in running circles between all 4 books. It is much easier to just get familiar with which years are in each of the books, and check the Grantor & Grantee Index at the front of each Deed Book. Another *fun* thing about the Deed Books, is that they are located in 3 different rooms at the courthouse. The 1821 to 1943 Deeds are located in a back room in the Law Library in the basement of the building. The 1944 to 1966 Deeds are located on the first floor towards the south side of the building. The 1967 to current Deeds are located on the first floor towards the north side of the building. Of course, if you are doing your research via microfilm, you don't really care where the originals are at. Deeds can contain many important genealogical clues, but basically they all contain the following: Grantor: The Seller of the property. Grantee: The Buyer of the property. Legal Description: The Land Lot, Land District, and Town Lot Numbers if applicable. A full Land Lot is 202 1/2 acres in Houston County. There is other data such as: the county where the transaction took place, the names of the witnesses to the transaction, the names of the adjoining neighbors to the property, etc. The first time that a person moved to Houston County in the early years, and then purchased property, it wasn't unusual to have him listed as: John "Twiggs County" Smith. Land Records are not the only thing that you will find listed in the Deed Books of Houston County. In the early years, especially prior to 1830, you could find just about anything in the books, such as: Wills, Sales Receipts, Slave Records, Divorce Papers, etc. If you suspect that a family cemetery may have been located on property that your ancestors owned during the 1800s, the Deeds may make mention of this. However, I have never seen a cemetery mentioned in a Houston County Deed until the early 1900s. It would say something like: "The old Elijah Johnson homeplace, containing 202 1/2 acres, except for a one acre graveyard, and 1/2 acre graveyard for negroes." As time edged closer to our current day, references to old cemeteries weren't *mentioned* in Deeds, as they are considered to be "clouds on titles". They legally encumber property, and banks don't *like* the mention of them. If you are fortunate, you may find a plat of your ancestor's property in a Deed Book, but that is rare during the 1800s. There are a considerable amount of early plats recorded in the Homestead Exemption Record Books, but it was about 1913 before Houston County started to record the plats in Plat Books. These Plat Books are *huge*, and are set on large metal rolling shelves on the first floor of the courthouse. They have been microfilmed, but the only copy that I have seen is at the courthouse, and that is only for photocopying purposes. The Deeds from about 1913 to the present, will mention the Plat Book and page number where the plat is recorded. ~~TO BE CONTINUED~~ _______________________________________ William A. Mills Perry, GA [email protected] Houston Co., GA Publications & Research Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/8795 ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.