User Manual
Bedford County, Tennessee
Deed Index, Volume 1
1807-1840

Getting started

Insert the CD-ROM containing the product into a CD-ROM drive. Once the CD is mounted and the volume label appears on the list of drives, open the CD and double-click on the file "index.htm" to start the product.

What is in these records?

Deed Index, Volume 1, 1807-1840 of Bedford County, Tennessee contains two indices (one direct and the other reverse). The index is 452 pages in length. Using deed indices is essential to identify records of transactions involving land and other property. You can review an extract from the deed index that shows the column headings here. A tutorial on how to use the information in deed books is located here.

The types of records recorded in early deed books include:

deeds (examples),
trust deeds for the sale of land or other property (examples),
deeds and bills of sale for other real property including slaves (who are typically identified by name and age) (examples),
land grants (examples),
sales of property directed by a court to satisfy a debt (examples),
mortgages (often listing all of the important real and personal property owned by a debtor) (examples),
sales of accounts associated with businesses (often with a long list of debtors and amounts) (examples),
bonds (examples),
relinquishments (examples),
powers of attorney and appointment of agents (examples), and
divisions of land among the heirs of an estate (examples).

Each page of the index is organized into columns with the following headings (see an example here):

Grantor (seller) (this column is first in the direct index and second in the reverse index)
Grantee (buyer) (this column is second in the direct index and first in the reverse index)
Instrument ( Deed (D.), Trust Deed (T.D.), Grant, Bill of Sale (B.S.), Power of Attorney (P.A.), Mortgage (Mtg.), Agent , Bond)
Year
Deed Book (Books A through JJ in index Volume 1)
Page (the page number of the first page of the instrument).

Once a deed of interest is identified in the index, a copy can be ordered (using the deed book and page number from the index) from the Tennessee State Library and Archives or the Bedford County Registrar of Deeds (931-684-5719). (In the near future, GSC Associates Historical Records Products will also be publishing all of the early deeds of Bedford County, Tennessee on CD-ROM).

The types of information found in deeds include:

the date of the transaction (examples),
relationship(s) (both personal and business) of the grantor (seller) and/or grantee (buyer) to each other or to others (examples),
the name of a spouse (examples),
the names of children (examples),
a partial or full history of previous owners of a parcel of land (examples),
the county and state of residence of the grantor and grantee (examples),
a list of all heirs of a decedent (in case a parcel of land is being divided) (examples),
the location, extent, and value of real property being sold or mortgaged (examples),
the owners or lessees of adjacent parcels (who are often related to the grantor) (examples), and
the names of witnesses (who are often related to the grantor or grantee, their spouses, or their children) (examples).

Navigation

The index page contains three links to portions of the product. These links provide various paths of entry into the image files that are part of the product. At the top of each image page are three navigation links as illustrated in Figure 1:

Index: Returns to the index page.
Previous page: Goes to the page that preceded the current page in the original source document.
Next page: Goes to the page that follows the current page in the original source document.

Figure 1. Navigation links

Use your browser's scroll bar to scroll down the page. The page numbers in the original, handwritten version are contained in parenthesis in the left margin of the pages. Caution: All indices in this product use the page numbers of the original, handwritten version and not the page numbers of the typed transcription.

The links are used in the following manner:

Alphabetical index of individual names: This index is the starting point for locating information of interest in this product. Click on a letter of the alphabet to go to the page of the index where last names beginning with that letter are located. You will need to navigate to the next page several times to view all of the index entries that begin with that letter of the alphabet. Because the entries are chronological and are grouped only by first letter of the last name (an indexing scheme called "semi-alphabetical") you will need to check all pages for that letter for that alphabet to look for the name(s) of interest to you.
Deed Index, Volume 1, 1807-1840: Click on a page name or number to go to that page. Because this is an index rather than a set of records, pages are accessed only using the alphabetical index and no direct access to individual pages is provided. Once a page is located using the alphabetical index, other pages can be accessed using the "Next page" and "Previous page" links on each document image page.
User Manual: A link to this user manual.
License agreement: A link to the license agreement. When opening and using this product, you agree to follow the terms of this agreement.

Printing images

Images can be printed without the navigation buttons at the top of each page by using the image printing features of most browsers. If you are using Netscape, right click on the image and select "View Image". Once the image displays in a new window, select "Print" from the file menu. If using Internet Explorer, right click on the image and select "Print picture".

About the images

The page images contained in this product were prepared from microfilm published by the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA). This original microfilm is Roll 2 in Record Group 107 at TSLA. The document contained on the microfilm is a transcription of Volume 1 of the Deed Index of Bedford County, Tennessee and covers the dates 1807-1840. This transcription was prepared by the Work's Progress Administration in 1937

Although the microfilm that was the starting point for this product may be purchased from TSLA, the images in this product were created by GSC Associates using specialized and proprietary digital imaging technology and are copyrighted and are not in the public domain. The use of these images is governed by the license agreement.