California, Alameda County, Land Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States California Alameda County

What is in the Collection?
This collection contains deed records and indexes that are located at the Clerk-Recorder Offices in Oakland.

Collection Content
Land records are primarily used to learn where an individual lived and when he or she lived there. They often reveal other family information, such as the name of a spouse, heir, other relatives, or neighbors. They may also include information about previous residences, occupations, military service, citizenship, and so forth.

Most of the states in the United States are public domain states, which means the federal government controls the land. In state-land states, however, the state government appropriates all land within its borders.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
The records generally include:


 * Name of buyer
 * Name of seller
 * Name of spouse, heirs, other relatives, or neighbors
 * Place of residence at time of purchase
 * Occupation
 * Transaction dates
 * Amounts of monies exchanged, paid or assessed

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search, it is helpful to know:


 * The name of you ancestor
 * The approximate date of the land transaction
 * The place residence before purchase

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search the collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒ Select the "Browse" link in the initial search page ⇒ Select the "County " ⇒ Select the "Record Type, Volume, and Date Range" which will take you to the images.

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. Save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details such as a title or an occupation. Add this new information to your records of each family. These records may offer clues such as the given name of a spouse, a previous residence, names of children, or death information.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Land records may offer clues to maiden names if a father deeded property to his daughter upon marriage.
 * Witnesses and neighbors may be in-laws or relatives.
 * It is important to trace the purchase and sale (or the acquisition and disposition) of each parcel of land your ancestor owned.
 * Once a parcel of land was transferred from government to private ownership, it may have stayed in the family for generations or for only a few months. It may have been subdivided, sold, and resold, with each transaction requiring new records.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation