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Monday, August 3, 2009

New Toy

I got a new toy! Berks County is digitizing all the deeds that have been recorded in the courthouse since 1752. It is a work in progress with another stage expected to be completed by the end of this month. At this point, images of all the deeds are not yet visible but you can see the deeds recorded since 1973 and from 1752 to 1774.
As soon as I saw this, I immediately thought of several things I have been wanting to find but not taking the time to go to the courthouse to look for them. The amount of this kind of information online is steadily increasing, making history and genealogy research much easier, cheaper, and more convenient. In addition, it saves the wear and tear on these old deed books. Lancaster County deeds are also available online but the index is not, which means I still have to go to the courthouse to look for deed numbers. Berks County will have the index online when the work is complete which means I can soon look for anything any time without driving to Reading, paying to park, pawing through the books, or messing with reels of microfilm.

If you have any interest in Berks County history, here is the link to get started searching for deeds:

http://www.countyofberks.com/recorder/cwp/view.asp?a=2367&q=499943&recorderNav=

2 comments:

Gary Good said...

Have you heard any word of this same thing for Lebanon County?

Scribbler said...

I've never used it but there is a link on the right side of Lebanon County's Home page which gives information on the Recorder of Deeds. http://lebcounty.org/lebanon/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=444286

Apparently Lebanon County deeds can be seen after you have registered with another website. Play with it and let me know what happens.