INSTRUCTIONS ON USING THE REGISTER OF DEEDS PAGE

 

Reba Thomas, the Registrar of Deeds of Chatham Co has had all the deeds for Chatham Co. digitized from 1771 to 1986 at:

http://www.chathamncrod.org/Opening.asp

This is a fantastic resource for all of us with Chatham roots!!  However, there are some provisos.

1.You MUST use  Internet Explorer or Firefox as your browsers  ( minimum IE 5.0)

2. You have to have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer to view the deeds (you can dowload this program free. from site)

3. You may have to download the 'Active X'  (this is also free on the site)

There are instructions on how to use the site, on the page where you are asked for choices in 'land', 'plat' etc. The link is located to the right  in the  'Search Image Index' window.

http://www.chathamncrod.org/county/ImagedIndexWebInstructions.pdf

HOWEVER, if you want to use my instructions that take it step by step in the link that most of us will use  "Scanned Index Books (Imaged Index)"
Here they are.... (the steps are in bold underlining)

1.  When you get to the site then you must click on "Acknowledge Disclaimer to begin searching records"

2.  When the next page comes up you then click on "Scanned Index Books (Imaged Index).

3.  On that page you will see on the left side of the page a window and the word on it says "Land"  and a button next to it that says "next"   click on the "next".

4.  Then, another window will come up that says "grantor" it will also say "grantee" if you want to go to those deeds

5.  Pick whichever you want to begin with, (grantor or grantee) and click on  "Next" button.

6.  A new window will open up that says "Select Year Range" and you will need to click on the arrow next to it and arrow down to the years you want
Most of us will want the:
Jan. 17, 1771 - Dec. 31 1935 window.

7.  When you get the years you want,  you can enter a name where it says "human" enter  the name you are looking for and then click

"search".....

8.  In a couple of minutes or seconds (depending on the speed of your computer) a two part screen will come up.

The right hand side will show a page of indexed names. This page should be the page with the name you asked for.

On the left side is a  list of names with numbers to the left of them.

9.  Scroll down the list, on the left and when you find your name click on it. The next screen will be the first index page of the name you wanted.

(also note, if there is more than 1 index page for your requested name, it will be there, with an arrow to go to the next page.

You may enlarge the index page for better viewing but, if you do, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and then scroll from left to right, at the bottom, to see everything.

When you scroll all the way to the right, on the index page, to get the Deed Bk. and pg # you want.

After you get the bk and pg # you want, then you go to the top right side panel  "View Image" window and click on the arrow in the top right hand  "Deed" window and get it to drop down, to  "Deed (Letter)"

10.  In that little window blank space, you type the Bk # and then the page # in the window.

(And, AT LAST!!)

That will bring up the actual page/document for you to read. and print or save, using your tool bar.

11. If there is more than one page, click on "next page", until you get all of it printed out.

12.  When you finish close the page (go up to the "x" at the right top) and it will take you back to the index page and you can look at more bk. and pages.