Delaware County became a separate and independent jurisdiction on Sunday, the 1st day of April, 1827.  On the following day the people of the new county assembled to vote for and choose the necessary officers to carry into effect the law enacted for their government:  William Van Mater for Clerk and Recorder; John Rees and Lewis Rees for Associate Judges; Valentine Gibson, Aaron Stout and Enoch Nation for County Commissioners.  Peter Nolan was the Acting Sheriff.

Introduction and Tips

This project indexes, with notes, the Deed Books of Delaware County from 1827 to 1860, a total of 22 volumes.  Deed books can be a valuable resource for genealogy searchers.  When land is sold or quit claimed, the deed may indicate that the persons involved had a relationship to the (now deceased) owner of the land.  Sometimes this is the only link between generations.

This enhanced index is intended to point to the names of all those who are a party in these transactions.  Remember that property was considered to belong to the husband of any married woman, so the married name will provide the clue. 

Work on the database for this list took place over approximately 6-7 years, beginning with Mary Ann Estep on an abstracting project, which later became an indexing project, and ending with assistance from Jane Morton on the last few books which were indexed.  Yes, we are all human, and yes, there will be some errors in spite of our best efforts.  Please direct any questions to the Delaware County Historical Society. 

There is considerable variation in the spelling of surnames during the early period of the deeds in Delaware County.  Sometimes a name would be spelled different ways within the text of the deed.  We have adhered to the original in the document as well as we could read the handwriting.  ‘See’ references were used in the majority of cases where the name was found in other forms. 

Abbreviations are used to compact the entries while including the essential information.  Most of these should be self-evident and the common given name abbreviations are used.  You may see both ‘cty’ and ‘co’ used for county.  There may be some truncating as adjustments were made over the years of indexing.  For those unfamiliar with deed records, the term ‘commissioner’ may be confusing, as it is used in court actions, such as settling an estate, selling an estate for payment of debts, or partitioning land to heirs. 

If copies of the original are wanted, the Delaware County Historical Society can obtain copies of the original deed book pages for the off-site search fee of $15 per hour, including up to six pages.  This would cover most of these documents.  Additional pages would be 10 cents each. 
Norma Lasley