Our instinct is to reply to the question "Where are the deed books?" by saying "At the county courthouse, of course." That answer may be incorrect—or it may not be the only correct answer. Let's look at the possibilities:

Original record books
Deed books originally belonged to the jurisdiction that created them, most commonly the county. But as counties became more mature and more populous, the number of record books grew. Fortunately, land records (at least, deeds) were rarely discarded. Land ownership is an important asset and one on which many facets of county business are based, from tax collection to the location of roads and easements.

To deal with the ever-growing volume of records, some counties built bigger courthouses. Some counties consigned older records to the basement or attic. Some counties began storing them off site (sometimes with ready access, sometimes not). And some counties, in effect, moved the records "up" a jurisdiction. A few states (Illinois being a prime example) established regional archives where counties could send old records for safekeeping. A number of states established programs to send older records to their state archives. This is generally an ongoing process. Not all counties have transferred records, and not all records have been transferred. Some counties are working on it; others intend to keep their records. In other words, you need to be open to a wide range of possibilities as you seek your ancestors' land records.

This transfer process may be influenced by whether or not the originals have been recorded on microfilm, microfiche or other storage media. If a county knows it can still refer to its records quickly and easily, it may be more likely to transfer the originals to another location, either off-site storage or a regional or state archive. Some counties that still possess their original record books won't let you look at them—you'll have to look at the microform version.

Microform
Commercial vendors of microform systems have long seen the problem of record storage and retention for county offices as a business opportunity. Many counties purchased some kind of microform system in which the vendor made copies and provided equipment to access the copies. To say that there is a wide variety of systems would be an understatement. Many of them are heavily proprietary—meaning the vendor's equipment is required to read the records. A number of state archives also undertook microfilming programs for the records in their possession.

LDS microfilm
The largest coordinated microfilming effort is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These records are available to everyone through the Family History Library. You can learn more about using the FHL and its resources from Your Guide to the Family History Library by Paula Stuart Warren and James W. Warren (Betterway Books, $19.99).

The FHL has more than 2.2 million rolls of microfilm, with new rolls being added on a regular basis. For the United States, land records are an important—and voluminous—portion of the collection. In general, the original 13 colonies and the first tier of trans-Appalachian states have been microfilmed, but much smaller portions of the counties in the Midwest and West are covered.

The best news is that you can access this microfilm without going to Salt Lake City. LDS has more than 3,700 branch Family History Centers (FHCs) worldwide, most of which are located at churches (find your local FHC at www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp). Plus, FHC microfilm-loan privileges have been granted to some public and private libraries. For a nominal fee (usually under $4), you can borrow a roll of microfilm to read at your local FHC or FHC-designated library.

Published abstracts
You may be lucky. A dedicated genealogist or society volunteer may have abstracted the indexes or the deed books you need and published them in books or in a genealogical society's periodical. Published abstracts are valuable for several reasons. It's easier and faster to check the index of a book than to crank microfilm or drag heavy volumes from courthouse shelves. Plus, information about your ancestor may be buried in a deed in which neither the seller nor the purchaser is a familiar name to you. The every-name index in a book of abstracts may lead you to a deed you would have otherwise overlooked. Southerners often must rely on land records to learn anything about their ancestors, and so they have been especially proactive in publishing abstracts.

Online land records
Few land records are available online, especially at the county level. One reason is the sheer volume of records. In a few cases, volunteers may have abstracted deed indexes to be placed on Web sites, or county offices or state archives may have placed their indexes online—but don't expect this.