New York Land Records, 1630-1975, Are Now Searchable (At least somewhat)

New York Land Records, 1630-1975, online at FamilySearch.org, now has a searchable option. This is a relatively new tool was added in probably just the past month or so. Previously, we had to work through the digital images of the various indexes to find whom ever it was we were looking for. This was of course time consuming in of itself. The arrangement of the various indexes were not consistent from one county to the next. In the past I, myself, spent considerable time extracting BREWERs and BROWERs, and the like, from all different types of indexes. Many of these I've made available online so others would not have to spend the same time that I did. This search feature is a welcome addition, although it is a bit limited.

The results from a search do not take you to an individual record, but rather it takes you to a selection of  index pages on which the name you are searching with is found. So, for example, here I searched with the name, William Brower, and I selected the "exact" boxes for his name, and the result brought up 22 items (removing the match name exactly option brings up 411 results including those names with a middle initial). Unfortunately, the search does not allow one to restrict the results to any one specific county. Some of the items in this search I just conducted includes the name of the county in which the index is found, but others do not. This is something that only comes to light once you've selected the individual record.

From that list of 22 items I'm going to scroll down to the item that includes both William Brower and Abram Brower. I select on William Brower's name and I get this new window. Still this does not tell me in which county this index listing is found. It also describes the record as a "Land Assessment," which it is not. It's an index listing from a Grantor's Index. An image is included in this window and clicking on the enlargement icon takes me to a new widow with the full digital image. Here, as shown in the bar above the image, we discover that this index listing is found in Kings County. The entry itself is found in the lower corner of the page on the right. The deed can be located in Kings Co. Deeds, Lib. 181, p. 88. You'll note too, that William Brower is the grantee in this conveyance. The search tool apparently, is then able to locate both grantors and grantees regardless of the index.

To find the actual deed we're going to have to locate the deed book (libor) on the website, and we've been through this exercise before on this blog, but just to refresh, go to the page in "New York Land Records, 1630-1975," that lists the links to each of the individual counties. Select Kings. Then find Conveyances 1848 vol 179-182 which would include volume 181. Now, you'll just have to work your way through all the images to find page 88 of volume 181. One way to do this is to use the Zoom Out button to decrease the individual image sizes so that many images appear on your screen at once. You can then scroll through this to locate where volume 181 begins, and then locate page 88 from there. So, here is the beginning of volume 181. If you've worked with these digitized microfilms before, you're well aware of the fact that the image number does not correspond to a page number (that, after all would just make things too easy), so what I do here, is first note that each image, in this film, includes two pages from the book, and since I want to find page 88, and I'm at image 354, I should find p. 88 at another 44 images away, or thereabouts. So, lets try image 398 (354+44) and I'm at page 86-87, just a bit short of my target. Hit the forward button once, and we're at page 88. The deed we're interested in starts eight lines up from the bottom of page 88 (the page on the right).

Dated 10 August 1846. Abraham Brower of the City of Brooklyn (prior to 1900, Brooklyn was of course a city of it's own and not a Borough within New York City) of the first part, and William Brower of the said City of Brooklyn of the second part. For consideration of two hundred dollars lawful money of the United States paid by the said party of the second part...the usual legal language of conveyance follows... then a description of the property which is "situate, lying and being within the seventh ward of the said City of Brooklyn..." Further down in the deed we find that Abraham Brower had acquired the property from George Howland by a deed bearing the date of May 1, 1838 and recorded in the clerks office of Kings County in "liber number 93 of conveyances, page 413, on the third day of February, 1841." More legal language and eventually we get to page 91, where Abraham Brower's signature is witnessed by John Cortelyou, and it is recorded in this book of conveyances on June 26, 1848, so nearly two years after it was enacted. Note also, that the signature you see is not actually Abraham Brower's. These conveyance books are all copies of the original deeds, recorded in books by the clerk for future reference. The original deed, which Abraham Brower would have signed, was likely held by the grantee, William Brower. It probably does not exist today. I was hoping here, with this particular deed, we'd find a clue as to the relationship between these two Brower men. Are they father and son? Brothers? Cousins? Distant cousins? It doesn't specifically say. Sometimes these deeds can be frustratingly silent when it comes to relationships between those involved. Other times, however, we do get lucky and a genealogy problem is solved.

But, back to this new search feature itself. These search tools are not perfect. If you've spent much time trying to locate individuals or families on the U. S. census records, which have had search options available for many years now, you'll know what I mean. The database of names is only as good as the transcriptions of those names from the originals. And, every time something is transcribed, an error can occur. I would not for minute assume that this search tool would reveal to the user all and every Brower found in the originals. I'm sure some were missed, or probably mis-transcribed as perhaps "Brown," which is a common mistake I've found in the census collections. Whenever I'm searching for a Brower in the census records in a place where I'm pretty sure he/she should be, but he search comes up empty, I try again using the name Brown. More often than not, I then find who I'm looking for. With the name, Brewer, the mis-transcriptions, Bremer and Brener, and Brever, are pretty common. So, if you don't find who it is you're looking for with this new search tool, don't give up, at least not until you've given the old, more time consuming method of searching a try.

In short, a nice new feature. It could be better. But we'll take it. 

BGB 679