Below, I was looking at a 2-page document, which would be ($0.50 x 2) + $1 = $2.00). Note that, as of now, the image viewing capabilities are based on the outdated Java platform and only seems to work on Internet Explorer (for me at least), but supposedly this drawback is known and is actively being updated to an HTML platform.
#Berks county deed searchy plus#
(Update: Sheeler informs me that images are 50 cents per page, plus $1 when using a credit card in order to cover processing fees. The images can be printed or saved for $1 per page. Yes, I repeat, these document images are all online! If you live in Berks County, the process of chaining the title for your house history research could be complete within an hour or so without even going to the county offices. Sheeler suggests.)Īlso available are mortgage documents and even subdivision plans. Although a fully indexed database is often easier to use for those unfamiliar with these record types, researchers should be familiar with searching records using index books as well, as it is not difficult and can yield persons of the same surname, who could possibly be related, or with similar spellings as Mr. Thanks Fred for the clarification: this is useful to know and sounds similar to the way I search for deeds in person at the computer station at Montgomery County, whereas Berks has it online. They are actually better than a regular modern name search since the index books group similar sounding names together so if you had an ancestor with the name Snyder and it formerly was spelled as Snider you would still come across it." You can choose from the deed grantor and grantee indexes or the miscellaneous or mortgage indexes. When you are on the search site just choose Index Books as the search criteria, you enter the party’s last name and the first initial of their given name and all the index books will display. All older documents that we have not fully indexed are still searchable by our online electronic version of our index books. (Update: Fred Sheeler provided this clarification to me regarding online searchability: "Al l the documents are searchable just not by the modern name search capability. The Recorder's office states that their goal is to have all of their documents back to 1752 indexed by name and searchable, making it even easier for researchers to find what they are looking for. Although not all of the images are indexed by name and searchable as of yet, it appears to me that a great number are. According to their website, essentially the entire collection of deeds recorded in the county since its founding in 1752 has been digitally scanned and is available for residents and researchers to access online.
The current Recorder, Fred Sheeler, has been leading his staff since 2008 in an incredible effort of records digitization. The Register of Wills even gives a bit of his own personal genealogy on his bio page!īut let's get back to houses, shall we? Berks County takes it to the next level over at the Recorder of Deeds office. That makes it incredibly easy to get right to finding the actual records you need once you are there in person (or just as easy to request them by mail). Although that office's actual records are not available online (yet), they make it very easy for one to do alot of prep time ahead of visiting their office in person, by giving you all of that index information- the dates, volumes, and page numbers right there online. The county's Register of Wills has some great searchable indexes for birth, marriage, and death records. Thus, I've become familiar with searching records there, and I have to say that this county is doing alot of great things in terms of making records accessible to their constituency, researchers alike, and the public at large. Although I cautioned against assuming that all of your research questions can be answered online, there is one county nearby that has made incredible headway in the online frontier.Īlthough I do not live in Berks County, PA, a large percentage of my ancestry is rooted there, and the city of Reading, the county seat, is only about 70-80 minutes from my house. Early on, I outlined how you can access online databases at some your local county government offices to help kick-start your house research, before heading there in person.
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