I found out some interesting information today that I'm sure many of you already kknow and it may already have been posted, but I'll share it anyway.   When I was researching today at the Maryland Room of the Caroline County Public Library in Denton, one of the research specialists told me that Land Records ONLY record land that has changed hands out of the family...it does not list land passed down in the family through wills, etc.   Again sorry if this is "old" news!   Kari Farnell researching Andrew, Lomax, Fischbach, Appel, Shick

Well, to make sure you don't head too far down this track, the "land records" of the county (that is, the deed books) include any property conveyed in life, whether in-family or not. Many, many deeds are found by which land is either sold or granted by "deed of gift" from father to son (or daughter, or other kin). Relationships have nothing to do with presence or absence among the deeds. But yes, the deeds do not include land passed through probate actions. The problem with probate for chasing down conveyances is two-fold: (1) if the party left a will, he may not have actually named the land bequeathed except as "my dwelling plantation" or some other identifier, which is sometimes harder to unravel than we'd like, and (2) if the party died intestate (without a will), the probate court made "equitable" decisions on who got what - generally according to established rules, but the actual documentation of what went to whom does not usually survive, and has to be looked for otherwise (like later deeds which refer back to the title chain). The "land records" are just easier to deal with for title work, in that virtually everything deeded ended up immediately in the county deed books, identified by tract name, etc. By the way, the "land records" also include other sorts of property, like slaves, personal goods, livestock, etc., often as "bills of sale". And other things like bonds, powers of attorney, and all sorts of other agreements. John -----Original Message----- From: Kari Farnell <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 10:00 pm Subject: [LDR] land record information I found out some interesting information today that I'm sure many of you already kknow and it may already have been posted, but I'll share it anyway.   When I was researching today at the Maryland Room of the Caroline County Public Library in Denton, one of the research specialists told me that Land Records ONLY record land that has changed hands out of the family...it does not list land passed down in the family through wills, etc.   Again sorry if this is "old" news!   Kari Farnell researching Andrew, Lomax, Fischbach, Appel, Shick *************************************** QUESTIONS about POSTING GUIDELINES, SUBSCRIBING or UNSUBSCRIBING? Visit The Lower DelMarVa Roots Mailing List FAQ: http://www.tyaskin.com/handley/ldrfaq.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message