For those that haven't used the "New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1930" collection found on FamilySearch.org for your research into your New Brunswick ancestors I highly recommend taking a look at them. They aren't
an index searchable collection but they also aren't that hard to
navigate through once you've had some practice.
To actually locate the various documents without having to painfully look at each volume and page you can make use of the indexes that were created by the holders of the deed register books. In some cases the grantees and grantors will have separate books such as the period between 1823-1841in Saint John county. But often the grantees and grantors will be listed in the same book but on alternating pages so you need to pay attention to the column headings.
Let's start with a look at the 1784-1823 index books in Saint John county. Image 47 has a list of people listed as grantees including that of Benedict Arnold (Loyalist, traitor or scoundrel ... you choose). On the proceeding page he is listed as a grantor along with his wife (the "et ux" part). The entries all talk about deeds so it looks like he was acquiring property in Saint John. Now let's take a look at the 1823-1841 grantor index book for Saint John County. If you go to image 7 of that book you come across Benedict Arnold once again. However, this time it is his "Last Will". If you continue to look in the columns to the right you will notice that it can be found in volume C-2 starting on page 414 in that book.
So if you go back to Saint John county and select "Deed book" you can scroll down until you find book C-2 which is the registry book for 1825. Select that book to look through. The page numbers don't match up with the image numbers so you will need to start at image 414 and look in the top corner of the page to find out what page you are on. In this case image 414 displays page 404 of the deed book. Jump ahead another ten images to image 424 and you will see that "414" is written in the top left corner. If you scroll down the page a bit you will see the following:
Just a second ... a will in a deed registry book? Why?
To actually locate the various documents without having to painfully look at each volume and page you can make use of the indexes that were created by the holders of the deed register books. In some cases the grantees and grantors will have separate books such as the period between 1823-1841in Saint John county. But often the grantees and grantors will be listed in the same book but on alternating pages so you need to pay attention to the column headings.
Let's start with a look at the 1784-1823 index books in Saint John county. Image 47 has a list of people listed as grantees including that of Benedict Arnold (Loyalist, traitor or scoundrel ... you choose). On the proceeding page he is listed as a grantor along with his wife (the "et ux" part). The entries all talk about deeds so it looks like he was acquiring property in Saint John. Now let's take a look at the 1823-1841 grantor index book for Saint John County. If you go to image 7 of that book you come across Benedict Arnold once again. However, this time it is his "Last Will". If you continue to look in the columns to the right you will notice that it can be found in volume C-2 starting on page 414 in that book.
So if you go back to Saint John county and select "Deed book" you can scroll down until you find book C-2 which is the registry book for 1825. Select that book to look through. The page numbers don't match up with the image numbers so you will need to start at image 414 and look in the top corner of the page to find out what page you are on. In this case image 414 displays page 404 of the deed book. Jump ahead another ten images to image 424 and you will see that "414" is written in the top left corner. If you scroll down the page a bit you will see the following:
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| "New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1930," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11824-75446-87?cc=1392378&wc=M69D-4M9:13842701,13841702,16160301 : accessed 07 Jul 2014), Saint John > Deed book > 1825 vol C2 > image 424 of 557; citing County Office of Service. |
Any transaction involving land needed to be recorded. Since Benedict Arnold had property to be disposed of that was mentioned in his will a record of this document was used to record the transaction.
You just never know what and who you may find in the deed registry books for the counties your ancestors lived in.
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