Services

 

Scope of work:  I search land and, when needed, probate records at Worcester County Courthouse to try to determine all the owners of your property as far back in time as possible—or as far back as we mutually decide.  If you already have some information on prior owners, please send me a copy--that can save me time and you money.  NOTE:  Worcester County land and probate records go back only to 1731.   I probably will not be able to locate records from before 1731 (which may or may not be available in your Town Clerk’s Office)—unless you so authorize.  Please note also that land and probate records may not reveal exactly when your house was built, though they often provide very important clues.  (Please click on Dating your house for some examples.)

 

I will also provide as much information as possible about the genealogies of the early owners of your property.  I have means to search vital records for most towns in Worcester County, especially records from before 1910, and also refer to several genealogical web-sites.  I can also research records of both the MA Vital Records office and the MA State Archives in Boston (though this can be somewhat expensive, because I have to bill travel time to work there).

 

Additionally I have software that allows me to plot complete property descriptions (i.e., those that include a distance and a bearing for all bounds).  These can be very helpful and informative, especially if your property was once part of a larger parcel of land.  (Please click on “Sample description plot” for an example.)

 

I will then produce a detailed report describing the chain of title to your property.  You will receive copies of all deeds to the property and any other relevant documents, including recorded plans, plots, probate records, and genealogies of early owners.

 

Difficulties in searching your own title:  If you are not very familiar with how the MA land records system operates, searching the chain of title to your own property can be tedious, time-consuming, and frustrating, for a number of reasons:

 

All Massachusetts land records are indexed not by location, but by the names of the parties shown in each recorded document.  The names of buyers (and mortgage lenders) are recorded in the Grantee index;  the names of sellers (and mortgage borrowers—property owners) are recorded in the Grantor index.  Indexes from 1890 forward generally show all the relevant information about the property affected by any given document (date of recording, type of document, the parties’ names, the record book & page numbers of the document, the town where the property lies, and a very brief description of the property). 

 

The two older sets of indexes (1731-1839 and 1840-1889) are much less informative.  The Grantee index for 1731-1839 and both indexes for 1840-1889 show only the names of the parties involved, the type of document being recorded, and the town wherein the property lies, but no description of the property affected by the document.  The 1731-1839 Grantor index generally does not even identify the town.  This can make the search of any particular name extremely time-consuming, especially when there are a number of entries recorded under any given name.

 

“Problem titles”:  Rarely a title search reaches a “dead-end” and cannot easily be traced further back in time—usually because of a missing probate or unrecorded deed(s).  These are quite rare, and I will report to you if I encounter such any such “snags,” unless it appears that further searching will not exceed your budget.