Have you every wondered when your Great Grandparents, Herb and Lydia, bought that small farm at Coalton KY you visited when very young?
Deeds are a grand resource for both genealogical research and general history research. In 1962 and 1988 the “Genealogical Society of Utah” filmed the early deed books and the deed book indexes for Boyd County KY using 16mm and 35mm film.
These film images have been scanned and made available on the free genealogical website called “FamilySearch”. But, these images are hard to wrangle as they are on very long rolls of film where the number you see on the page of the scanned image does not coincide with the image number of the screen being viewed. In addition, since several volumes were filmed on one long roll, it is difficult to tell which volume you are viewing. It is just hard to find the section you desire to see.
I have created an index with direct links to the beginning of the volumes. The index also shows the page ranges for each volume for both the numbers on the physical page, and the image numbers of the screen images you view. This allows you to more quickly position yourself at, or near, the pages you want to see.
In order to view these deeds using this index you will need to have a “FamilySearch” account. The account is free and can be created by going to the “FamilySerach” website.
Click here to create a “FamilySearch” account.
For those unfamiliar with deed searching I offer these tips. I am not an expert at deed searching, but I have had several deed search sessions at The Boyd County Clerk’s office at Cattlettsburg KY and use the records available at “FamilySearch”.
- The Grantor is the person or institution that is selling, leasing, or giving the property away.
- The Grantee is the person or institution that is buying, or otherwise receiving the property.
- Each deed is indexed by both the Grantor and the Grantee.
- The Grantor and Grantee indexes both indicate which Deed Book Volume (a Volume Number) and Deed Book page where the deed record starts, like Volume 6, page 137.
- Both the Grantor and Grantee are indexed alphabetically. Note it is not an absolutely perfect alphabetical listing. You just get close alphabetically and then have to search several pages before and several pages after. The exact same name can also be listed in more that one place, but all the same names are typically within a few pages in the listing.
- In general there are totally separate alphabetical listings for private individuals and companies.
- The Grantor and Grantee indexes are for the years 1860 to 1929.
- There are deed books cited in the Grantor and Grantee indexes that are not available on “FamilySearch”. Only Deed books up to Volume 33 are available.
Before you can use this index you must log into your “FamilySearch” account, then utilize the index.
Click here to access the Early Boyd County KY Deed Index.
If you like using this index just open the index and bookmark that webpage in your web browser. Then you will have direct access to that bookmark when you need to search early Boyd County KY deeds.
A big thanks to Teresa Martin Klaiber for reviewing this index.
Enjoy! Lon
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