Researching Chester County Land Ownership

Deeds are legal documents mainly concerning the transfer of land and property. They normally are between 2 parties, the purchasers and the sellers, but occasionally there are 3 or more parties to a deed. There are also Deed Polls, with only one party, the purchasers, when the Courts have ordered a property sale. These sales are organized by the Sheriff. The deeds associated with these sales are sometimes held with other deeds and sometimes in collections solely of Sheriff’s deeds. Researching Sheriff’s deeds is not described in this document at present.

The Recorder of Deeds receives completed deeds and holds those after 1920. Deeds prior to 1920 are held by the Chester County Archives. Researching deeds later than 1920 is not described in this document. There have been periods when a minority of the deeds were never recorded, especially in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Unrecorded deeds are often mentioned in later deeds for a property, and often continuous deed histories can be created from this information. The Chester County Historical Society has a collection of some of the unrecorded deeds. Additionally, in the early days, some Chester County deeds were recorded in Philadelphia.

The original land ‘sales’ by William Penn and his family prior to the Revolution, and by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after the Revolution, are called patents. The State Archives in Harrisburg holds these patents and online indices and plans are available. Researching patents is not covered by this document.

Deeds can be researched both online and alternatively by visiting the County Archives (for deeds up to 1920). The Chester County Archives has an online index of deeds up to 1865. It can be found by going to Chester County Document Center, selecting Archives and Records, then Online Indices, and then Land Records. This index is ordered by surname, then given name, and then date. The township where the property is located is also given. For example, here is the entry for a sale of a property in Tredyffrin by Peter and Mary Eager to Samuel Huzzard in 1795. It is in book M-2, page 148.

Researchers should be wary of surnames with multiple spellings. For example, Rickabaugh and Pennypacker are family names that appear in various places in the index with alternate spellings. It is worthwhile at times to search the index using the name of the party with the most consistent spelling.

Around 1950 a copy of the deeds held by the Chester County Archives was made on fiche. A copy of these fiche was purchased by the Mormon Church. In 2017 the Church, through its Family Search service, converted the fiche to images and published the deeds and an index online. A Family Search account is needed to access this service (go to Family Search to create an account). The Chester County deeds are found at: Family History Library

The indices are ordered differently from the Chester County Archives index described above. These deed indices have separate purchase and sale tables. The tables are ordered by the first initial of the surname, the first initial of the given name, and the date. Here is part of the table showing the same Peter Eager deed as in the Archives example above:

The tables are in the form of images so it is not possible to word search on them. Note that these indices include deeds up to 1920, unlike the Archives index. The township is not given in these tables. Copies of the deeds held by the Mormons only extend up to 1903 (deed book E-12). The only way to obtain deeds between 1903 and 1920 is by visiting the Chester County Archives.

The Chester County Archives has deeds online up to the end of the 14 series (1918). It also has deeds for series 15 to 22 (1950) on fiche. There is no index associated with these latter deeds. The Recorder of Deeds should provide search capabilities for these deeds, but it has proved to be unreliable.

The following procedure for locating deeds is suggested. If the book and page number of the deed is known and it is before 1903 go directly to the Family Search system to view and download the deed. If the name of one of the parties is known, but not the deed identification, and the deed is on or before 1865 then use the Chester County Archives deed index, otherwise use the Family Search indices to locate the deed.

Mike Bertram, July 2019, edited August 2020