Found while cleaning up an old mailbox. - Tim Hi Jane, Don't forget the County Court House for deeds. I spent two days there last year and searched out my McGrath/McGraw relative's land transactions. The records cover the period from 1808 to the present. I was able to fill in several pieces of family history and straighten out some family legends just based on the information that I was able to find there. Now in the earlier days not every transaction was recorded so you might not be able to reconstruct an entire history. The great thing about the deed records was that they let you search thru them on your own. Then you place the books with the pages you want copied in a pile by the Xerox machine and they will copy them for you. I think the copies were 50 cents each and they only took cash. There was a person on hand who was very knowledgeable concerning the ins and outs of deeds and the procedures related to land transactions. Here is an extra trick that I figured out. After you find a deed that relates to one of your ancestors the next question will be: "Where is it located?". The city locations have addresses but the rural locations are more difficult. Back in 1876 there were some maps drawn up for all the townships in Cortland County. A copy of those maps has been laminated and is available in the deed room. You will want to have them make copies of the relevant townships for you. They are too big for the copy machine so they will have to make the copies in three overlapping sections. Later you can cut and paste them into one whole map again and then run them down to Kinko's to make large copies and the seams practically disappear. Why are these maps important? Listed on these maps are the names of the individual land owners and the size, in acres, of the parcels of land that they owned in 1876. After the original subdivision of the lots, that were awarded to the Revolutionary War veterans, the land continued to changed hands according to these subdivisions. Many of the subdivisions were in odd amounts which makes it easy to track them. I was tracking one that was 1.5 acres and that made it easy to trace. The original lot numbers are still used today but the land is described in terms of its boundaries and its size. The size number is like a flag and is just as useful for identification purposes as if they had numbered the various subdivsions. In each lot there might be 5-7 individuals and the almost unique size numbers allow for the identification of where the various parcels are located even after they change hands. Using this technique I was able to pinpoint the location of almost all the deeds I was able to find. Good hunting, Mike McGraw Austin, TX -----Original Message----- From: Jane Holt [mailto:Janech@prodigy.net] Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 8:51 PM To: NYCORTLA-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYCORTLA] Libraries/Resources I will be in the Cortland area sometime during the third week of September. Can anyone suggest libraries or other research facilities that might have information concerning Cortland County residents for the period 1800-1850? Thank you for your help. Jane Holt JANECH@prodigy.net