Starting with a Deed The Ancestry of Abraham Huber (1847-1910)

Kris Hocker on 25 Jan 2016

When you think of deeds you probably think of land transactions, right? So-and-so sold someone land in this place on that date. And why not? That’s what deeds are supposed to record.

But there have been many times when I’ve been surprised by just what else deeds record. Deeds come in different flavors.1 Sometimes, in order to adequately record the details of the transaction, they contain valuable information about the family involved in the purchase or sale.

Lancaster Co Deed D14:276

J.N.S. Hill C.O.C. to Abraham Huber (D14:276)

Take this deed, for instance.2 Straight off the bat we know that this deed is a deed of settlement. How do we know that? The party of the first part—the “person” selling the land—is a clerk of the Orphans Court for Lancaster County.

Despite the name, the Orphans Court dealt with more than just appointing guardians for “orphans.” In Pennsylvania it dealt with the details of settling an estate—both intestate and testate, recording the administration account, the appointment of guardians, the division of real estate amongst the heirs if it was not spelled out in the last will & testament (of there was one), petitions by heirs for specific pieces of land from the estate, and more.

In this deed, the Orphans Court is selling land to Abraham Huber from the estate of John and Christian Huber, tenants in common of a tract of land in Providence Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It states that both men died with wills (testate) and identifies specifically where Christian Huber’s was recorded. This provides me with clues to two additional documents, potentially pertaining to Abraham Huber’s ancestry.

Furthermore, the metes and bounds identify the owners of neighboring properties. They are named as John Huber of Pequea Township, little John Huber, John Reinhart, and Benjamin Herr. The fact that one of the neighboring properties lies in Pequea Township provides a general location for the tract—on the border between Pequea and Providence townships. This not only helps me locate the land, but, in this case, most likely points to Abraham’s ancestry.

Check back to see what I can learn from John & Christian Huber’s wills.

Footnotes

  1. See the Legal Genealogist’s “A deed indeed” for the different types of deeds and what they entail. ↩
  2. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book D14:276, J.N.S. Hill C.O.C. to Abraham Huber, 1 Apr 1892; digital image, Recorder of Deeds, “Online e-Film Reader” (http://www.lancasterdeeds.com/onlineefilmreader/ : accessed 8 Jun 2011). ↩

Cite This Page:

, "Starting with a Deed The Ancestry of Abraham Huber (1847-1910)," A Pennsylvania Dutch Genealogy, the genealogy & family research site of Kris Hocker, modified 25 Jan 2016 (https://www.krishocker.com/starting-with-a-deed/ : accessed 25 Apr 2024).

Content copyright © 2016 Kris Hocker. Please do not copy without prior permission, attribution, and link back to this page.