New Hampshire County Resources
This entry was originally written by George F. Sanborn Jr., FASG, and Alice Eichholz, Ph.D, CG for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
New Hampshire deeds and probates are recorded on the county level. An act forming counties was passed in 1769, but the Province continued to record deeds and probates until 1771. Strafford did not organize as quickly as the other original counties, beginning its functions in 1773. After 1771, deeds are located at the county registry of deeds and probate records are located at the county registry of probate. Both registries are located at the county seat, but sometimes in different buildings. All addresses are from the New Hampshire Government Resources website www.nh.gov/government/local.html and Melnyk's Genealogist's Handbook for New England Research, 4th ed. (see Background Sources for New Hampshire). Deeds and probate records on microfilm at the New Hampshire Historical Society and at the New Hampshire Division of Records and Archives go through 1771, with Rockingham County deeds at the archives through 1824. At the FHL and the New England Historic Genealogical Society they go from inception to ca. 1850. Later records are only available at the appropriate county office unless otherwise indicated in the following chart.
Map | County | County Address | Date Formed | Parent County(ies) | Vital Records | Court Records | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G4 | Belknap | 64 Court St., Laconia 03246 | 1841 | Strafford/Merrimack | 1841 | 1841 | ||||
County courthouse has copies of Strafford County deeds covering land that became part of Belknap after formation in 1840. | ||||||||||
E5 | Carroll | P.O. Box 163 (deeds), P.O. Box 419 (probate), Ossipee 03864 | 1841 | Strafford/Grafton | 1841 | 1841 | ||||
K2 | Cheshire | 33 West St. (deeds), 12 Court St.(probate), Keene 03431 | 1771 | original | 1771 | 1771 | ||||
B5 | Coos | 55 School St., Lancaster 03584 | 1803 | Grafton | 1803* | 1887 | ||||
*Fire damaged thirty-three volumes of the pre-1887 deeds and all of the probate records before that date. Damaged deeds were transcribed when possible and are retained in the courthouse. Seven volumes of Grafton deeds relating to Coos County before formation are kept in a separate series with separate indexes covering 1772'1803. | ||||||||||
E3 | Grafton | 3785 Dartmouth College Hwy., North Haverill 03774 | 1771 | original | 1773 | 1773 | ||||
J3 | Hillsborough | 19 Temple St. (deeds), 30 Sprinig St. (probate) | 1771 | original | 1771 | 1771 | ||||
H3 | Merrimack | 163 N. Main St., Concord 03301 | 1823 | Rockingham/Hillsborough | 1823 | 1823 | ||||
J5 | Rockingham | 10 Rt. 125, Brentwood 03833, Mailing address: P.O. Box 896, Kingston 03848 | 1771 | original | 1630 | 1639 | ||||
H5 | Strafford | Justice and Admin. Bldg., County Farm Rd., Dover 03820 | 1773 | original | 1769 | 1769 | ||||
H2 | Sullivan | 24 Main St., Newport 03773 | 1827 | Cheshire | 1827 | 1827 | ||||
Early deeds were damaged by fire. A separate series of 'burned deeds,' consisting of copies of surviving portions of the burned volumes with a separate index, is at the registry. |