I have been talking about my trip to Kansas the last couple of weeks. I will have a lot of upcoming posts with information I found on my trip. I want to make sure I acknowledge the locations where I found all of my goodies.
The focus today is the Jefferson County Register of Deeds. I decided to stop here on the morning of our last day before driving to Atchison for some shopping with my mom. I knew I only had a few hours to research here and planned my attack the night before.
The Jefferson County Courthouse is located in Oskaloosa, Kansas. It sits in the center of the town with shops surrounding the square. The women who work in the Register of Deeds office were incredible. Upon arriving, I explained that I was looking for deeds related to Moses Mitchell when he moved to the area. I was shown the Grantee Index books and set loose. I was able to locate 3 deeds that related to my ancestor.
The office does not allow photos to be taken. The good news is that every deed in the office has been digitized so I just had to ask for a printed copy. The print outs were definitely a better quality than I could have gotten on the copy machine.
I also was able to find a descriptive map of the area that shows exactly where my ancestor’s land was located. The woman at the front desk made a copy for me on 2 large sheets of paper so that I did not need a magnifying glass when I got home.
My last great find was shelves that had information from the local genealogy society. Along with marriages and school census information, there was 2 large binders of old genealogy society publications that also had an index. I made a couple of great finds in those.
I cannot say enough about how helpful and kind the women who worked in the Register of Deeds office were. Hopefully you have some ancestors from Jefferson County, Kansas so you can use this great resource!
