It's never easy reading old legal doc's but here is what I get from it-
1.John Mason is listed as a plantif and that he is owed money and has brought legal action against the "allison's,bolcoms & barkers"
2. There was a court appointed arbitrator (JA Eastman) and there was an order to sell a part or portion of the property to pay Mason (That the said sale be made in the county where the said mortgaged premises or the greater part thereof are situated)
3. It appears to relate to the purchase of land/house possibly money wasn't paid or other conditions met (and being the same premises mentioned in the complaint in said action)
4. It appears John Barker was the high bidder in the court ordered sale and repurchased the land/house for $700

A mortgage can be held on land with or without a house.
The missing words, and my lack of background info on who "Frank Balcomb, Charles Balcomb" are, and other details could easily make any of my assumptions wrong, but may give you some insight into what to look for as you continue to research it. Good luck.
Paul

Thanks, that helps.
I have been trying to figure out who the Balcombs are and can not find much yet.
The Allisons lived on the land.

What I really don't understand (maybe you may) is how Barker who bought the land in 1864 can buy it BACK in 1871? Unless like I mentioned, that the allison's lived there and had a mortgage for the house and they defaulted and Barker was able to buy it at the auction??

Is that something that makes sense?

Some research showed a John Mason that was an early settler of the area. He lived near by and they were a very rich family. I am not sure if this is the same Mason in the deed though.

When you mention indenture, there are old deeds written much like a land contract is today where a property owner sells a house with certain conditions. If the tenants don't live up to those conditions they can lose the house. Or there is also the possibility that if a sheriff's sale is forced to use the house and property to pay off a debt, not only would the owner of the land who was selling it be involved, so would the tenants who were buying it, because they have some equity in that property.

IT could be more than one JOHn BARKEr for instance.Thats one big reason you get confused you read these things thinking its one person and many ,many times theres more than one in a family with same name.
IF YOu gop to Conneticut,monroe county clerks office look in Liber book 39 on page 99 your deed will be there.On that deed will be another similar number look that up,that will be your next deed .KEEp going till you cant go back any further.
Usually the deed mentions buildings etc on deed.

Thanks, I went to the deed office and looked up 39 page 99 and the correct deed was not there. maybe they made an error when converting it to microfilm??
Also the land is in NEW YORK, monroe county. I am not sure why conneticut is listed. Someone must be from there??

Maybe Barker is a land investor and sold the land to Allison, and then bought it back at auction a few years later.

Maybe Barker had a partial interest in the land with Allison (a relative?) and wanted to buy up the residual interest that was being auctioned.

If your intention is to figure out when the house was built, perhaps you could look through the reverse index in the deed records and see if there is a Deed Of Trust.

These usually are done when a home is built and money was borrowed to do so.

Also, in these old deeds, are you making certain that the meets and bounds are describing the same EXACT legal description?

Good Luck! I know what your up against and it can be fun, exhausing and exciting not to mention super frustrating.

Also, talk to your old neighbors. They often have the best leads to when a house was built.

If you want to know when the house was built, the house itself will give you information - its frame, its mouldings, its layout and style can be dated.

Meanwhile, keep the deed concerns in the back of your mind - answers may appear in unexpected places.
One house I know well had a unique design, c. 1800 - and we had no reference for it. The owner had been a judge. By chance I read a will of a man in a different town and state which listed the home owner of the 1800 house as having been one of the medical students of the dead man in 1760. Their later paths in life were similar - for example both served in their state legislatures - and I now think they knew each other all their lives. The visual connections between the doctor's house and judge's house was easy to see - not a copy, but an influence - very interesting.

YOU misunderstood.Look on your deed there should be a book number with page number.I was using that as an example.all my deeds have book no.and page no.It should also tell you on deed what county where did was registered.

bulldinkie, she said that: liber 39 page 99. That's Book 39, page 99. And the county is Monroe County, New York.

yes, thanks vjrnts, I did look up the deed in the listed books however it was a dead end because it wasn't there in the microfilm!!

I keep looking for a connection to Barker and Allison and I just can't find it ! :(

Signs do point to our house being built around 1850 however I really would love to know who built and it and a more exact date. I know I may never find a date but even knowing who built my house would be really great!

All the older neighbors have moved and the town historian has no information on my house :(

-renee

Renee,

When you say you looked up the reference with liber and page number, did you look in the deed recording books, or the mortgage recording books? At least in my county, and those nearby in eastern NY where I do my searching, these are completely separate series of books. In other words if you looked for the referenced mortgage data in the deed series in the book and page you noted, you wouldn't find it. But if you look in mortgage series, you would. If your old local records have been microfilmed, you may find the orginals were given to a nearby historical society.

Another thing to do would be to go to the indexes of the individual books during the target time period and see if you can pick up the thread by searching for the names involved. More than once the hand copied (and usually hand recopied at least once if the data is from the mid-19th c.) has turned up an error in my searches. Sometimes I have just been forced to sit and read document and after document in chronological order just to re-grasp a broken chain.

HTH,

Molly~

MMmm. i guess I don't know if what i was looking for was a mortgage or a deed. I assume it was a deed and then looked in the correct deed book. I am not sure if my county separates the two.

I didn't even think of that.

Renee,

You wrote: "That all and singular the premises described in a mortgage ? by Joshua Allison and wife to the State of Connecticut and recorded in Monroe County Clerks Office in Liber 39 at page 99....."

This is a mortgage reference and the actual mortgage text would be in the mortgage series of books, not the deed ones. I think it's likely that your system is the same as ours here near Albany. I've searched in at least 6 counties and it's always the same: the mortgages may be noted in deed texts, but the mortgages themselves (the full texts) are in the mortgage books. BTW, the indexes of mortgages work the same way as the grantee/grantor indexes, i.e. usually same pagination system. Just remember that the grantor is the seller, the grantee is the buyer but the person borrowing the money is the mortgagor (or "er"). So when someone buys a property and borrows purchase money they are the grantee and the mortgagor.

(And as an aside, I think it's Josh Allen and wife of not to the State of CT. It's probably just a misprint.)

Good luck!

Molly

Oh! Then I looked in the wrong set of microfilms!!!

Hi, need help on the old measurement terms if anyone out there can help would greatly appreciate it.

1] How do I figure out what measurement this means
ex: East 53 poles what is a measurement of a pole?
2] links, what measures a link?
3] chains, what measures a chain?
Thank you for any help.
Gail

Here is a link which gives land measurements--it includes some spanish ones used in Texas, Florida etc--ignore those.

Here is a link that might be useful: Land Measurements

Forget trying to look up information from the town historian on the house itself. Instead start looking up the names mentioned in the deed. Find out the relationship these people had to one another and from there you may find your answers.

I couldn't find much on my house so instead starting looking up the individuals listed on the deeds and from there I found out much more than I ever would have had I just stuck to an address or farm name.

Be careful in assuming that Barker is referring to just one person. Chances are you may be dealing with two. Father and son or uncle and nephew. You need to look at names carefully when doing this type of research.
IF you can find a old map with the family names on it, take a very close look at who the neighbors are. VERY often parents and or grandparents would sell or give land to children. Cousins often settled near each other.
Another avenue to explore is your local church.
If there is one within walking distances of your hold house go and check it out. Talk to the pastor or priest and see if they have any records from back then, look on old donation plaques inside the church, you may be surprised at what you might find right in front of you.
I actually found out where my property got it's name from reading a donation plaque sitting in one of the local churches.

You may also need to compare signatures to try and tell if they are the same person or different people with the same name.

Sometimes the middle initial is even the same, but is a different middle name and the full name (first, middle, surname) are not all written out fully.