I’m not certain how much Michael Trautvetter paid for a piece of property he purchased in Campbell County, Kentucky, in 1845.

In the context of my problem I am not certain it really matters.

The amount of money obviously mattered to David Trusdell and Michael Trautvetter. But I’m not assigning a value to the real estate for tax purposes. I’m trying to solve a genealogical problem.

The deed is the first one where Michael purchases property in Campbell County, Kentucky. It is dated 9 August 1845 and styles Michael as being of that same location. Before this was located the earliest I knew Michael was there was his 1850 census enumeration. This helps to backtrack that date of settlement by about five years. That’s helpful when trying to locate the German native in passenger lists.

I’m also trying to determine where the property was located in Campbell County–at least approximately. The amount he paid is not going to impact that analysis.The deed does mention the property as being on the waters of a specific creek which will help in placing it.

I will transcribe the entire deed, including the metes and bounds description of the property and the acreage. That will be helpful in making certain I have all of Michael’s land transactions accounted for as there are multiple purchases and sales for him in Campbell County. In the aggregate he did not own a large amount of real property, but missed transactions could indicate records have been overlooked (or perhaps never recorded or improperly indexed).

Based upon the handwriting, it looks like “tow” hundred dollars to me and that’s how I will transcribe it. I’ll put the [sic] after the “tow” to indicate that’s what it looked like to me.

But it’s nothing to fret over.

It does not impact the acreage of the property. It does not impact the boundary of the property. It does not impact the type of title being transferred. Those are things where the wrong interpretation does matter.

The amount did matter to the buyer and the seller. I do want to transcribe it as it appears. But sometimes there can be more than one way to read something and the difference is not crucial. This is one of those cases.

I’m just glad that I’ve backed Michael’s residence in Campbell County back by another five years. That increases the amount of time he lived there and increases the chance he appears in additional county records.