Registry of Deeds

Jellybaby1

I was Googling the Registry of Deeds site and found:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~registryofdeeds/

and I find I can check the indexed records. Is this a freakish accident or has it always been available? I don't have a sub for ancestry.com.

pinkypinky

It's just hosted on ancestry and not maintained or really anything to do with them, so it's gree.

Please note that it is by no means a complete index but volunteers are working on it regularly.

Hermy

Have any of you any experience of searching the Registry of Deeds or what it entails?

Jellybaby1

I didn't see anything in those indexes which looks familiar to my families but there might be some long lost connection somewhere. I was in there a couple of years ago looking for a couple of wills, that's all the experience I have.

Ninjakettle

I was wondering recently if the Registry of Deeds could hold any helpful info for me while trying to pick apart the family tree.  I see from a recent post on Claire Santry's blog that Family Search now have an extensive microfilm collection and the volunteer project is chewing through that. 
The collection looks a little complex to traverse, but i'm willing to give it a go - it's just not clear to me before i start if ALL records are on Family search or there's more counties/townlands to come. Does anyone know?

pinkypinky

I don't believe all the images are on FS yet but they plan to put them up.

Hermy

I hope so Pinky as a volume I wanted yesterday hasn't been uploaded yesterday.

They're a tough resource to navigate but worth the effort.

Ninjakettle

So - for the given townland i'm interested in, all i'm really seeing after checking several years is the odd change of hands from some landlord to another.  I guess as most farmer folks didn't own their land, they're not going to be listed in the deeds much if at all?

Hermy

Yes, I think it tends to be the more upwardly mobile folk who appear in these records.

pinkypinky

Well, the thing is that the index will only show the Grantor (owner) name but the actual memorials will show the grantee. Even if your ancestor didn't own the land, which is very unlikely before the 20th century, he/she would be featured on leases of the land.

Ninjakettle

I did dig into the actual books and the Grantor and Grantee were high profile gents passing land to each other and there were long winded account of that type of activity. No mention of the names of the farmers leasing off them though.  
I have found my guy on the valuation books alright, but that was just a name with no detail.  Is the leases you mention some other record i can search?

pinkypinky

No, I meant the RoD records of registered leases. It's possible that the Grantee was subletting on to your ancestor.

pedroeibar1

Small and even mid-size farmers wouldmost likely not appear. Those deeds also are a useful tool for confirming death records - land being re-registered in the name of for e.g. the eldest son after the death of his father.

Earnest

Ninjakettle wrote: »

I was wondering recently if the Registry of Deeds could hold any helpful info for me while trying to pick apart the family tree.  I see from a recent post on Claire Santry's blog that Family Search now have an extensive microfilm collection and the volunteer project is chewing through that. 
The collection looks a little complex to traverse, but i'm willing to give it a go - it's just not clear to me before i start if ALL records are on Family search or there's more counties/townlands to come. Does anyone know?

There's no need to worry about townlands being omitted. As far as I can see, what appears on familysearch is a whole volume. Each index volume covers a county (sometimes two) for a particular range of years. So if you find your county, you've got everything there is for those years. And if the volume number you find in the index corresponds to a volume number reproduced by familysearch, the deed will be there.

Earnest

People seem to be unsure as to when a deed will be present. There should be a deed for every transfer of ownership and for every written lease drawn up in proper legal form. These leases are usually for a long period such as three lives, or even renewable for ever. Most small tenants would not have such a lease, and will therefore not appear. However, occasionally you will get a lease that says something like A leases to B the townland of C except for D's farm. So D might be a small tenant who didn't have a written lease.

Ninjakettle

They're well presented records and i'm sure will be of great value to some - but i've come up empty for my search. @Earnest As you've said, i've found the small tenants are almost never mentioned.
bit of a related side question - would a widower's name be likely to be be struck off a valuation book in the event of a remarriage?