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Search the Land Records from All States, View Property Reports Now!
Tennessee deeds are recorded at the register of deed's office. The county court maintains jurisdiction over the probate and court records, except for Shelby and Davidson counties where the county court handles probates, and circuit court handles civil matters. Dates given are for the first known records in each category at the county seat. It does not imply that all records are extant from that date. County formation is from information supplied by the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Beginning with county organization, land records are available
from the register of deeds at the respective county courthouse.
Land and property records include transfer of real estate
or personal property, mortgages, leases, surveys, and entries.
The Tennessee State Library and Archives has microfilmed
county deed records that can be ordered by providing name,
date, county, and type of record in the request.
Only a small portion of the land granted in Tennessee was
free land, and that was granted to those who provided some
form of service to North Carolina. Earliest land records,
including early grants issued by North Carolina and Tennessee,
are microfilmed with a card index available in the Public
Services Section of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Other holdings include land warrants, survey certificates,
and records from county register of deeds offices.
Most land records will be found with the county Register of Deeds. Despite their titles, deeds found in a county Register's office may include other legal documents of transfer, such as deeds in fee simple granting absolute ownership; mortgages transferring property rights as security for debts; dower releases waiving wives’ rights; quit-claim deeds releasing whatever title or right is held whether valid or not; deeds of gift transferring land without reciprocal consideration; powers of attorney appointing legal agents; marriage property settlements; bills of sale transferring property that is usually not land; and various forms of contracts, such as leases, partnerships, indenture papers, and other performance bonds. Deed books from before the Civil War and especially in colonial years were more miscellaneous in their contents, even including animal brands, occasional wills, slave manumissions, apprentice papers, petitions, depositions, tax lists, and whatever else the clerk decided to preserve on a convenient page. Through such records a researcher may trace the ownership of land, in some cases for two centuries or more.
DUTIES OF REGISTER OF DEEDS
The most important function of the Register's office is the filing or recording of documents which affect the legal status of real and personal property. With regard to real property, these documents include deeds, deeds of trust (mortgages), financing statements called fixture filings under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), assignments, plats, court decrees, leases, liens, releases and many other instruments. With regard to personal property, the most important documents have been financing statements under the UCC and instruments relating to financing statements, such as amendments, continuation statements, assignments, releases and termination statements; however, most of these UCC documents are now filed with the secretary of state and not with the Register. Powers of attorney are often recorded in the Register's office. Also, some official documents (county official bonds and certain official reports) are recorded or filed in the Register's office. The Register notes in a notebook the time and receipt of each document in the order received and maintains indexes of the records of the office. The Register must be familiar with the requirements for acceptance applicable to each document. The prerequisites for acceptance of a document vary with the type of document. It is important to remember that a Register is not a notary and does not have a statutory power to take acknowledgments, as do county clerks.
The Register has important revenue functions, both for the collection of fees for performing the duties of the office (most of which are found in Tennessee Code Annotated § 8-21-1001) The Register must be knowledgeable concerning the many special rules and exceptions which apply to the collection of the realty transfer and mortgage taxes. The Register must be knowledgeable about the required statements on instruments evidencing transfers of real estate or certain interests in real estate and instruments of indebtedness.
OTHER DUTIES - Since office management is an important component of the Register's duties, Registers should know about personnel procedures and both state and federal laws. Also, the Register should have a basic understanding of potential liability, including both personal liability and county liability, and of the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act. Every county official should be familiar with the conflict of interest and disclosure laws applicable to their offices.
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The earliest land grants are now maintained and available
on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Official copies of all Tennessee land grants are bound and
filed in the archives. All known grants are indexed in the
master index, which is included on these microfilm reels.
These consist of the following:
- North Carolina grants in Tennessee, 1783–1800,
including North Carolina state grants. These land grants
are also in the North Carolina State Archives (see North
Carolina).
- Tennessee general grants date from 1806 to 1927.
- Grants were issued by district land offices from
1807 through 1838: East Tennessee District grants, from
1807; Hiwassee District grants, from November 1820; Middle
Tennessee District, from 1824; West Tennessee District,
beginning in 1826; Mountain District, opening in 1828; Ocoee
District, starting in 1838. A pamphlet entitled “Land
Grants in the Tennessee State Library and Archives,”
explains the holdings and is available from the repository.
The North Carolina Military Reservation was established
in 1783 in the northern section of what was then west Tennessee
(present-day middle Tennessee). It encompassed all the area
surrounding the loop of the Cumberland River north to the
Kentucky/Tennessee state line. A Congressional Reservation
was organized on 18 April 1806 in the southwest section
of middle Tennessee. The Congressional Reservation's northern
border was the North Carolina Military Reservation's southern
boundary. The western border for both was that portion of
the Tennessee River that flows north. Several published
volumes relate to North Carolina Revolutionary service land
grants in middle Tennessee.
Land grants for the area south of Walker's Line (in Tennessee)
are microfilmed and available through the FHL.
Originals are indexed and housed in the Kentucky Land Office.
TSLA has a printed index which lists the names of individuals who received North Carolina land grants in Tennessee and land grants obtained directly from the state of Tennessee. E-mail TSLA with the name of the individual, and we will check to see if there is a listing in the index.
A copy of the original land grant document can be purchased, once the index has been used to identify the volume, page and district showing where a grant is recorded.
ORDERING INFORMATION AND FEES:
- For a $5 fee, TSLA can photocopy and mail a list of all land grants for one specified surname. This fee covers the cost of copying up to ten pages. The $5 fee is not refundable. Payment in advance by check, money order or credit card is required. Send your request to Tennessee State Library and Archives, Research Department, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville TN 37243-0312. [GO TO FORMS PAGE]
- Please note that we ask that you submit each search request on a separate form. There may be a waiting period of up to 3-4 weeks before you receive a reply.
- There is a $20 fee to copy a land grant. The $20 fee is not refundable. Payment in advance by check, money order or credit card is required. Send your request to Tennessee State Library and Archives, Research Department, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville TN 37243-0312. [GO TO FORMS PAGE]
- Please note that we ask that you submit each search request on a separate form. There may be a waiting period of up to 3-4 weeks before you receive a reply.
- RESIDENTS OF TENNESSEE (with a current Tennessee postal address) will pay a $10 fee to copy a land grant. The $10 fee is not refundable. Payment in advance by check, money order or credit card is required. Send your request to Tennessee State Library and Archives, Research Department, 403 Seventh Avenue North, Nashville TN 37243-0312. [GO TO FORMS PAGE]
- Please note that we ask that you submit each search request on a separate form. There may be a waiting period of up to 3-4 weeks before you receive a reply.
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Excerpts From the Book "Family History Made Easy"
Prior to the Civil War, more than eighty-five percent of all Americans owned or leased land. Therefore, almost every researcher, whether a seasoned professional or weekend hobbyist, has required land records to document the existence, association, or movement of an individual or ancestral family. While many researchers may feel a sense of historical excitement when finding an ancestor in a land deed, many also fail to understand the importance of such a document and how land can be used to make vital links between generations; they are not aware that it can bridge distant origins and help solve even the most difficult problems. E. Wade Hone,
In Land and Property Research in the United States
U.S. House of Representative Private Claims, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 or Vol. 3
The right to own land has always been one of the great incentives for living in the United States. Yet researchers often overlook the importance of land records as a source of family history information. Written evidence of people’s entitlement goes back in time further than virtually any other type of record family historians might use.
Land records meet the needs of researchers in different ways and contain a variety of genealogical and historical data. They are a major source of information for many family histories and provide primary source material for local history as well. They are closely related to probate and other official court records and should be investigated in connection with them. Land and property are leading issues in the settlement of estates, and the majority of civil cases in the courts deal with real and personal property. Although land records rarely yield vital statistics, in many instances they provide the only proof of family relationships. Often they include the names of heirs of an estate (including daughters’ married names and a widow’s subsequent married name) and refer to related probates and other court cases by number and court name. In some places where other records are scarce, the land records take on extra importance. Occasionally these documents disclose former residences and more often provide the new address of the grantors or heirs at the time of the sale of the property.
Land records provide two types of important evidence for the family historian. First, they often document family relationships. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. One of land records’ most important qualities is that they are sometimes the only records that allow us to distinguish one person of a common name from another.
The National Archives has bounty-land warrant files, donation land entry files, homestead application files, and private land claim files relating to the entry of individual settlers on land in the public land states. There are no land records for the original thirteen states or for Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Hawaii. Records for these states are maintained by state officials, usually in the state capital. Searching for the record of a particular land grant from the federal government requires contacting both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Archives (NARA).
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