From a feeder state: Western New York Deeds

If your Midwestern research targets came from New York state, you may already know that New York has county (and town[ship]) historians. The excellent property-records blog In Deeds points to a partial indexing of Ontario County deeds at the historian's web site. Check out your favorite county for other unexpected goodies.

And if you're thinking, "That's just one county out of dozens in western New York," well, not exactly. Ontario County was formed in 1789. Between 1796 and 1854, fourteen children and grandchildren counties were formed from its original area. See it happen at the previously blogged FamilyHistory101 site.

Hmmmm...if you need precise details, visit a good library and check out the multivolume Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, since it looks to me like the Ontario County chronology and FamilyHistory101 may disagree on some points.

(FYI this is MMH post #400.)

Land Records

Are you one of the many genealogists who search far and wide for vital records, but fight shy of land records? Two recent online items may encourage you to take the leap into some of the oldest and most easily accessible sources of evidence on ancestors:

* A new blog -- you never know if these things are going to stick around -- called In Deeds is an ongoing series of land research chronicles from Michigan, with sidelights on George Armstrong Custer.

* The Family History Bulletin at WorldVitalRecords.com reprints from Everton's Genealogical Helper a Republic County, Kansas, study by Mary Clement Douglass, CG. Using the tract book or numerical index to follow a particular parcel of land in Republic County, she shows how she traced a family "through 4 generations and throughout the United States. It has given us legal name changes, clues to marriages, death dates, locations to pursue probate cases for deceased members, and evidence of the family scattering in the Twentieth Century across America. All of this information was found in less than two hours in the Republic County Register of Deeds office." Go for it.

(And if you have research targets in Kansas, take a look at her brand-new book on Kansas research.)