Help - Searching Historical Documents
Historical Search records predate the computerized document management system and consist merely of scanned images of deeds and mortgages organized by book (liber) and page.
If you happen to know the specific book and page of the document you seek, you can skip to Step 3 and enter the data directly.
Otherwise you will need to search the index in order to locate the book (liber) and page.
In that case you will need to follow this sequence:
Step 1
- Select the municipality (City of Beacon, City of Poughkeepsie, Town of Poughkeepsie or all others) from the Municipality drop-down.
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Select the party type (grantee, grantor, mortgagee, mortgagor) from the Party Type drop-down.
This will determine whose name you are searching.
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Select the letter range which contains the first letter of the last name you are searching for.
This will populate the available letters in the Letter drop down.
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Select the first letter of the last name from the Letter drop-down.
Click the Find Letter Index Page button which will display the image of the appropriate index page.
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Use the index to find which page the name you are searching is located.
The index is organized by the first letter of the last name and then broken down by the second and third letters of the last name.
The appropriate page on which those names are located is listed to the right.
- You may use the Next Page and Previous Page links to navigate between pages.
Step 2
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Enter the page number located in Step 1 into the Page Number textbox and click the Find Name Index Page button to display the name index page.
- Browse the name index until you find the name of the party you are looking for. Note the liber and page number in the right columns of the page.
- You may use the Next Page and Previous Page links to navigate between pages.
Step 3
- Select the type of document you are searching for (deed or mortgage). The document type you select must correspond with the party type you selected in Step 1.
- Enter the liber and page number from Step 2 in the Liber and Page textboxes and click the View Document button.
- This will display the deed or mortgage document.