Interpreting deed information on this website

 

Background Information
The deed information provided on this website is an index to the deeds.  These are not the deeds themselves.  Microfilm copies of the deeds are available for viewing at the Hamilton County Recorder’s Office, 138 East Court Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202.

 

The deeds are recorded on pages in deed books.  Therefore, the deed book number and page number are required to view and/or obtain copies of the deeds.

 

The Recorder's Office handles 2 types of deeds: Registered land and Un-Registered land.  With few exceptions, all Terrace Park deeds are for Un-Registered land.  Registered land deeds carry additional legal guarantees.

 

At the Recorder’s office there are multiple indices for deeds based on the time period and subdivision or township of interest.  On each index the deeds are listed chronologically within a subdivision and include grantor (the seller), grantee (the buyer), deed book number, deed book page, and lot number(s).  No information is available by current street address.  In fact, current addresses usually include multiple lot numbers, and over time, these lots have changed hands as they were bought and sold by speculators, developers and ultimately by home owners.

 

Deed Fields

Recorded Date the deed was recorded.  This is the official date. 
This is often NOT the date signed.
Grantor (from) The person or organization selling or providing the land for lease
Grantee (to) The person of organization buying or leasing the land
Series The date series for the deed, 1 - 9
Index Book (IB) An Index Book that lists the deeds for a subdivision within the Series.
Series Page A page in the Index Book where the deed is listed.
Deed Book (DB) Deeds are recorded in "Books".  There are a great many books and this identifies the Book Number.  The Deed Book Number is listed in the Index Book.
Deed Page The page number where the deed is found.
Plat Book (PB) A book containing the Plat (Map) of each subdivision.
Prior Book In order to track deeds back in time, it is very useful to know the location of the prior deed.  Unfortunately, this information is not always provided.  If this information is known, it is entered here.  If it was found to be missing, the entry will be either N/P or N/A.  If the field is blank, we did not attempt to locate it.
Prior Page If there is a prior book number, the deed is located on this page number.
Notes, Lot Lot numbers or other information is shown here
Years The number of years from the beginning of the current deed to the beginning of the next..  Typically this is the number of years a person had the property.  In practice, ownership may span several deed entries.
For the last or current deed, the ending date is assumed to be December 31, 2008.

 

Deed Sequences

On this website we have listed every deed in a recognized subdivision that is available at the Recorder’s office.  These are in chronological sequence up through 1939.  However, upon examination of the transactions for any address, it will be noted that there may not appear to be an natural progression of ownership.  There are many possible reasons for this, some of which may have happened over a century ago.

  1. A deed was never submitted to the Recorders Office but was held by the Grantor and/or Grantee. 
  2. There was a clerical error in recording the deed. 
  3. The owner died and left the land to his wife.  She then remarried and changed her name.
  4. There was a will which distributed the property.  Occasionally the information was not passed to the Recorder’s office.
  5. There was a will and the land was distributed to the heirs.  Female heirs may have married and have different last names.
  6. As noted above, each street address probably contained multiple lots.  Therefore it is important to note the lot numbers with each transaction.

 

In order to construct a clear and complete ownership list, additional research may be required.  This can entail:

  1. Examination of the deeds themselves, noting signature(s) and signing and recording dates, a full list of grantors, a full list of grantees and a full list of witnesses;
  2. Examination of affidavits;
  3. Examination of mortgages;
  4. Examination of leases;
  5. Examination of wills and other documents at the Probate Court office.

 

The gathering of this information is beyond the scope of this project by the Terrace Park Historical Society.  However, we may be able to provide some assistance if required.

 

Measurements
When dealing with deeds it is useful to know some measurements used in surveying.

        A "pole" or a "rod" is 16 1/2 feet.

        4 poles equals one chain, or 66 feet.

        1 chain is 100 "links"

        1 link is 8" long

        10 chains are 1 furlong or 1/8 of a mile

        8 furlongs or 80 chains make one mile.

        1 acre is 43,560 square feet (e.g. 100 x 435.6 feet)
        Directions: N, E, S, W are North, East, South, West

 

Abbreviations
 

Term Description
Adm Administrator - usually estate administrator
C-line Center line - Surveyor term
dec deceased
Est Estate of
et al and others
et ux and wife
N/A Information not available
N/P No prior deed number identified
POA Power of Attorney
Shrf Sheriff - Property disputes were settled in court.

 

Additional Information

Further information about deeds can be found on the following pages:

Subdivisions for a list of subdivisions.  Under each subdivision you can see the relationship between lot number and current street address.

 

Index-Plat Books lists the Index Books that are available at the Hamilton County Recorder's Office as well as the location of plat maps.

 

Sample Deed gives an example of typical wording on a deed.