How to Find Deeds in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

I gave a house history talk in the wonderful village of West Falmouth, Massachusetts on Cape Cod last Thursday. I thought I’d follow up with a how-to post on finding deeds at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds. These instructions are good for all 15 towns on the Cape – Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Wellfleet, and Yarmouth.

Where to start

You can start your research by simply searching for your first and last name at the Registry. However, if you have an even remotely common last name that could turn into a bit of work. You can narrow it down if you add the year you purchased your house. But the easiest way to start is by finding the book and page number of your current deed in the assessor’s property database.

The Barnstable County Registry of Deeds

Start by going to the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds website. On the home page, click on the link for Online Access. In the drop down menu choose Public Access.

Scroll down a little bit on the next page until you see “Continue to Free Public Search” and click on Search Now.

The next page is where you do all the searching. You can search for registry records, land court records, and plans. Typically I use the box Search Registry Records. There are however two other options: Find My Deed and Search By Address. The Find My Deed is the same thing as the Search by Name in the Search Registry Records option, it’s just more direct. I don’t recommend using the Search By Address option, especially if you live on a main road that may have a route number or a directional (east, west, north, south). Unless you type the address the exactly way it is in the database it won’t come up. Let’s start by clicking on the Search Registry Records button.

Searching for Your Deed by Name

On the next screen, make sure Registry Records at the top is highlighted in green, and that the Name tab is selected in the row below it. If it is, the search box will say Search by Name.

Enter your last name and then your first name. Under Document Type choose Deed. If you are a new researcher, this will help filter out all the myriad of other record types you don’t need to view (at least at the beginning). Lastly, select your town. Then click the green Search Records button.

The next screen will return the search results. If you have bought multiple properties in town, all of the deeds will be listed. If you have only bought one property then only one deed should be listed (unless you have done further transactions such as creating a Trust).

In the case of multiple properties, notice that under the Name you will see either Gtee (Grantee – buyer) or Gtor (Grantor – Seller). For your current property, you want to find yourself as Grantee because you haven’t sold the property yet. If there are too many results you can go back to the Search by Name screen and under Parties choose Grantees to filter the results.

In the example below, Arthur Underwood who built and resided at 628 W Falmouth Hwy for over 50 years, bought many properties in town. I’ve hightlighted his purchase of this particular address. If you encounter too many options, it’s better to go to the Assessor’s database, look up your street address and get your deed’s book and page number directly. In the Assessor’s database the book and page number are found under the header Legal Reference. On the image below we can see that the book and page number for this property is Book 261, Page 343.

Searching by Book and Page

Before I show you how to view your deed, I want to show you how to search by Book and Page number because it is much easier than searching by name!

At the top of the current page click New Search.

Back at the Search by Name page, click on Book & Page (highlighted in red). Then enter the Book and Page number. Then click Search Records.

How to View Your Deed

If you are searching by Name click on the deed in the search results. If you are searching by Book and Page, click on Search Records. Both will bring you to the Recorded Land Docs Abstract Search Results page. This will likely open in a new tab.

This page displays specific information about the deed such as the Document Type (Deed), Town (Falmouth), and the full list of Grantors and Grantees.

Under the solid green bar look for the very small open book icon (highlighted in red). Click that. This will likely open in a new tab.

Now you are viewing the Document Image List Page. Click on View the Image (highlighted in red). If there are multiple pages it will allow you to advance to view all pages.

The next page, which again opens in a new tab, shows you the Deed. You can use the Zoom option at the top center of the page for better viewing. The Barnstable Country Registry of Deeds displays an unofficial copy of the deed. If you need an official copy for legal purposes please contact the Barnstable Registry.

On the top left of the page it shows the page count. For this deed it is one of one.

How to Save a Deed to Your Computer

In the upper right corner of this same page look for these icon symbols. Choose the Download icon (highlighted in red).

Next you’ll see the Save As dialog box. Be sure to select the folder that you have created to keep all your house history research documents. You may want a separate sub folder for deeds. Also be sure to rename the file (highlighted in red) to something that makes sense. Typically I name my deed files like this: Year-GrantortoGrantee-Bk-Pg. So for this deed it would be 1903-KelleytoUnderwood-Bk261-Pg343. That way I can find what I’m looking for very easily and all the deeds will be listed in chronological order by year.

Good luck searching for deeds at the Barnstable Registry of Deeds. Please let me know if you have any questions.