Land records for Hamilton County are maintained at the Office of the Register of Deeds, on the 4th floor of the Hamilton County Courthouse, 625 Georgia Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee. The staff in the Register’s office might be the most helpful staff I have ever encountered at any repository thus far. They went above and beyond the call of duty, giving me little tidbits of historical information about the courthouse and the county in general and providing me with phone numbers and email addresses of people I might want to talk to (none of them related to this assignment, but handy information to have nonetheless).
The Register’s office is responsible for recording any document that would affect real property ownership in Hamilton County. Those records include tax liens, creditor liens, divorce decrees, plats, judgments, powers of attorney, all deeds and mortgages, and even DD-214s (military discharge papers). All of these records are available to the public without restriction with the exception of the DD-214s. Due to the personal information contained in those documents, they are restricted and are only provided to proven family members or next of kin.
Upon arrival in the Register’s office, I was fortunate enough to receive a brief synopsis of how things are recorded. When a record is brought in to be recorded, the identifying information (grantor, grantee, location of land, type of record, etc.) is entered into the computer. The original document is stamped and marked with the seal of the office and then given to a second person. This person scans the document, double-checks the indexed information already entered in the computer, and adds the book and page number of the newly-recorded document. The original document is then given to a third person, who triple-checks the information previously entered, ensures that all the pages have been scanned, corrects any inconsistencies, and returns the original record to the party indicated on the document. The digitized records are then available via the online database and are backed up on microfilm and sent to the state archives. No hard copies and no original records are kept in the Register’s office.
The online digitized images begin in 1966, but the indexes have been digitized back to July 1928. Indexes prior to July 28 and microfilmed land records prior to 1966 (back to 1796) are available on microfilm in the office. The original deed books have not been destroyed, but they are maintained off site and can be requested for supervised viewing in the office. They are currently working on digitizing all the microfilmed records prior to 1966.
The staff at the Register’s office told me of a courthouse fire in 1910 that destroyed a lot of the land records up to that date. Fortunately, the oldest title company in Hamilton County – National Title – had copies of a lot of the records, so they were able to be mostly recreated from those, and individuals even brought their original deeds to the courthouse for copying to make sure there was an official record of their land ownership. There are also two deed books at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Public Library, but the staff did not know what years the books covered, and I cannot see the books because there is pending litigation (no one knows how the library acquired them, and the library does not want to return them). Because we do not know the time period of those books, I cannot say whether they have been microfilmed and/or digitized. There have been other “disasters” at the courthouse, small fires and floods, but none of those resulted in any record loss.
The microfilm records are organized by rolls containing Grantor index (roughly 30 rolls, sorted alphabetically), Grantee index (also roughly 30 rolls, sorted alphabetically), and then rolls containing specific volumes and books. The microfilm indexes have been typed from the original books. Images of the original indexes are contained on the appropriate rolls at the beginning of each book as well. There are at least 4 microfilm readers in the office that I could see. There are 8 computers available to the public for accessing the digitized records. Documents can be printed from the microfilm or from the digital records and costs 15 cents per page. Off-site access to the digitized records is available to those who pay a fee of $50 per year. A fax service is also available for a fee.
Like the probate records, the Register’s office also has land records for James County for the 48 years it existed (it was absorbed by Hamilton County in 1919 when it bankrupted).
As an interesting side note, one of the staff members told me the story of when Jimmy Hoffa was on trial in Chattanooga in the early 1960s. In order to keep him safe at one point, he had to be hidden out in the courthouse. She took me to an area where there was a small door that led to a room that resembled an attic. She explained that this was the room where he was hidden for that period of time. I did not check her story for accuracy for this assignment … but I might see what else I can find out just because it’s an interesting story (and you never know; maybe he’s still in there!)
