An 1833 deed record in Coshocton County, Ohio, from Thomas Chaney to Abraham Chaney contains the following text at the very bottom of the record copy of the deed:

Recorder’s Office Coshocton County Ohio

This Deed was Filed in my office for Record Oct [22?]nd 1834 [And?] was Recorded same day & Year in book No 7 Page 706

Jos” Burns Recorder

 

It seems a little odd to include that at the bottom of the record copy of the deed when that is exactly what one is looking at on page 706 of book 7.

However, that notation was a part of the actual deed.

The original deed was taken to the Coshocton County Recorder’s Office in 1834 so that it could be recorded. The recorder’s certification that the deed was recorded was put on the original deed–so that anyone seeing the original deed would know when and where it was recorded. Not all record copies of deeds include the recorder’s certification that it was recorded, but some do.

The original deed would have had that certification written on it. In some cases it would have been attached to the original deed. Today that certification is frequently stamped on the deed with key elements filled in by hand.

This is a good reminder that the copy of a deed genealogists usually use is the record copy. That copy is the legal equivalent of the original. But the original deed? That went to the grantor.

Along with the certification that it had been recorded.