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Archiver > GEN-NYS > 2003-12 > 1070725987


From: Robert Akin <>
Subject: Re: EARLY NEW YORK STATE LAND RECORDS
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 07:53:07 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <001b01c3bba6$3ca4bba0$1c02a8c0@WorkGroup>


Here are some suggested sites that you might find
interesting.
http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html
http://www.boxes-in-the-attic.com/old_time_dictionary.htm#A
http://www2.pcom.net/cinjod/historian/Roots.html

Good Luck. I have spent many hours trying to read old
18th and 19th century documents. Here are some hints
that I have picked up:

1. If you find a letter that you can't make out, look
around in the document for similar figures and see if
the context of the words you find it in deciphers the
letter.

2. The "boiler plate" words in most deeds are the
same (with obvious differences in the names and land
descriptions). So if you find a deed that you can
read, see if the words in it help decipher a word in
the deed you are working on.

3. Check out the above sites for the unique letters
that were used then that are no longer used. Once I
knew about these, things got easier.

Good luck.

Robert Akin

--- Carl Hommel <> wrote:
> I copied this summer in the Fonda Court House,
> Montgomery County, NY, a 1834
> deed, and am having trouble reading it. Is there a
> place I could go to on
> the Web (or elsewhere) that gives the usual wordings
> of such documents? A
> few of the words do not make any sense. I also have
> a 1792 Mortgage from
> there, and am having a similar problem.
>
> I found it interesting that the person who granted
> the mortgage to my ggg
> grandfather was Jeremiah Von Renselaer. I understand
> that he was the land
> agent selling land taken from Loyalists after the
> Revolutionary War..
>
> Carl Hommel
>
>
>
> ==== GEN-NYS Mailing List ====
> Have you seen the USGenWeb New York Page?
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenweb/
>



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