Research, Baby
I have a sore throat. I stayed home sick from work, and when I felt better in the afternoon, I decided to take the opportunity to finally do some research on our house at the courthouse. It was remarkably easy to find our tax card and then look up the previous deed in a big ol' red book.
Let me quote:
Excuse me, huh? I roughly translate that to mean, "Mrs. Parkins bought the house from the Jackson kids for $10." Geez, that's pretty cheap. So what does "other goods and valuable considerations" mean? Did they trade something for it?
According to the Alabama Property Record Card, the house and land were only worth $41,700 in 1987. So what about in 1969 when the Parkins bought it?
And who are these Jackson kids, you ask? They are the grandchildren of the late great Mary Julia Dunlap - our house's first owner - whose daughter Laura married a Jackson.
Along with my trip to the courthouse, I went to the big cemetery up the road. And who should I find there but our house's family. Mary Julia shares a stone with her son Adolphus, who died in 1941. M.J. kept on kickin' till 1966; she lived 96 long years, 64 of them in our house. There's no sign of the second man to give M.J. his name - Clay Dunlap. I found a record of him in Jefferson County ... I'm thinking the two of them parted ways before the 1930 census.
M.J.'s first husband and other two children are buried nearby, as well as her parents and brother. I felt so in tune with them standing there among their plots. These were real people who LIVED once ... in my house. I just wish I knew more about WHO they were - not just names and dates.
But there is information to be gleaned from all this. First, that the widow Jackson was right about the lineage of our house. Second, that I was right to deduce we are only the third family to live here. Third, I wish I could've seen this place before the Parkins did their work on it - with one very old woman living here for 64 years, I bet it was nearly unchanged.
That explains the neon blue trim in the kitchen and the fact that the floors only have one layer of Parkins-added plywood/vinyl on top of the original wood. If M.J.'s son-in-residence died in 1941, it makes me think perhaps the knotty-pine office addition was made before then. Why would a little old lady living alone need a large addition?
Or maybe one of her other children moved in with her. There are still so many questions with no answers.
Let me quote:
That in consideration of $10 cash in hand, and other goods and valuable considerations, to the undersigned granters ___ Jackson, ___ Jackson and ___ Jackson in hand paid by ____ Parkins, the receipt whereof is acknowledged, we, the said [Jackson Five] do grant, bargain, sell and convey unto the said ___ Parkins the following described real estate situated in the city of Eutaw, Greene County, Alabama.
Excuse me, huh? I roughly translate that to mean, "Mrs. Parkins bought the house from the Jackson kids for $10." Geez, that's pretty cheap. So what does "other goods and valuable considerations" mean? Did they trade something for it?
According to the Alabama Property Record Card, the house and land were only worth $41,700 in 1987. So what about in 1969 when the Parkins bought it?
And who are these Jackson kids, you ask? They are the grandchildren of the late great Mary Julia Dunlap - our house's first owner - whose daughter Laura married a Jackson.
Along with my trip to the courthouse, I went to the big cemetery up the road. And who should I find there but our house's family. Mary Julia shares a stone with her son Adolphus, who died in 1941. M.J. kept on kickin' till 1966; she lived 96 long years, 64 of them in our house. There's no sign of the second man to give M.J. his name - Clay Dunlap. I found a record of him in Jefferson County ... I'm thinking the two of them parted ways before the 1930 census.
M.J.'s first husband and other two children are buried nearby, as well as her parents and brother. I felt so in tune with them standing there among their plots. These were real people who LIVED once ... in my house. I just wish I knew more about WHO they were - not just names and dates.
But there is information to be gleaned from all this. First, that the widow Jackson was right about the lineage of our house. Second, that I was right to deduce we are only the third family to live here. Third, I wish I could've seen this place before the Parkins did their work on it - with one very old woman living here for 64 years, I bet it was nearly unchanged.
That explains the neon blue trim in the kitchen and the fact that the floors only have one layer of Parkins-added plywood/vinyl on top of the original wood. If M.J.'s son-in-residence died in 1941, it makes me think perhaps the knotty-pine office addition was made before then. Why would a little old lady living alone need a large addition?
Or maybe one of her other children moved in with her. There are still so many questions with no answers.
posted by K | 9:49 PM
1 Comments:
I can't recall exactly how I came upon your blog and I know this is a really old entry. You have probably figured this out by now, but just in case you haven't... A deed has to recite that there was consideration for the property in order to be a valid contract. In order to satisfy this requirement without actually including the amt paid, deeds almost always contain a variation of the phrase "$10 and other good and valuable consideration." If you really want to know how much was paid there should be information on the deed as to the amount of tax paid, in my state it's called the transfer tax. It might be called something different in your state, but if you know the tax and what the rate was at that time, which someone in the real property office should be able to help you with, then you can determine the amount paid for the property. I'm really enjoying your blog.
Post a Comment
<< Home