Resources on-line

ThomasMoreland

I have been told that deeds and mortgages for Columbia County New York, back to its creation in 1786, are on-line, possibly through Family Search. Is this accurate and if so how do I access those records and search for a specific recorded deed or mortgage? Thanks. Tom Moreland

Mike357

@ThomasMoreland, Yes, FamilySearch does appear to hold the deeds for Columbia County, New York from 1786 to 1901. You can find these records here: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/245976?availability=Family%20History%20Library.

Notice that the Catalog page is titled, Deed records, 1786-1870, deed records of the city of Hudson, 1785-1825, and index, 1772-1925. However, when examining the film records that are listed it seems that deeds do extend to 1901. Although the title suggests that these deeds may be limited to the city of Hudson, a quick sampling shows that other towns, besides Hudson, are in the records.

I will let you examine these records on your own for now, but will come back to discuss how you can find these records yourself .

I hope that these records will be of value to your research.

Mike357

@ThomasMoreland, to continue our discussion of the Columbia County, New York Deed, you ask, "how do I access those records and search for a specific recorded deed or mortgage". Let me try and answer that now.

So we don't get confused, I am going to remind you that the Columbia county, New York Deeds are found in the Catalog entry, Deed records, 1786-1870, deed records of the city of Hudson, 1785-1825, and index, 1772-1925; and I provide the link again for your convenience:

https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/245976?availability=Family%20History%20Library

Notice, immediately below the Notes section, an invitation that reads, "New York, Land Records are available online, click here" (in red). This is often an easy way to find a specific record for an individual; HOWEVER, in this case It is likely that you will not find the deeds for Columbia county. The reason for this appears to be that the Columbia county Grantor and Grantee indexes for Columbia county don't seem to have been indexed. Since this Collection returns results based on what is found in the index, results for Columbia county, New York likely would not be found.

Probably a more reliable approach would be to scroll down the Catalog page to the section titled, Film/DIgital Notes; and examine the records found there. Notice that the first 4 records are Grantor Indexes, and the next set of 4 are grantee indexes. You will most likely want to start here to search for you ancestor. Each entry should have, associated with it, a Liber (Book) and page number and a year. You can then use this information to the the the specific Deed Book below.

Remember that each film generally contains 2 Deed books ( e. g., Deeds v. C-D 1808-1816}, so you will want to be sure to view both books to be sure the find the deed that pertains to your ancestor.