Utah County (Utah). County Recorder Abstract books, 1870-

This series contains bound volumes used to record abstracts of land transactions in Utah County. They are created to document the history of property ownership by providing "a true chain of title to each tract or parcel and the encumbrances thereon as shown by the records of the office" by geographical location (Utah Code 17-21-6(3)(2004)). The books contain a record of each instrument recorded, including patents, deeds, mortgages, and releases of mortgage. The information included in each entry includes such information as the names of grantor and grantee, the dates of the instrument and its recording, the type of instrument, time of recording, and the book and page and entry number and a basic description of the property.

The books in the custody of the State Archives were apparently first used in the 1880s, but include information dating back 1870 when land claims in the county were first formalized under the provisions of the "Act for the Relief of the Inhabitants of Cities and Towns upon the Public Lands" (Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, vol. 14, chap. 177). The act provided that officials of incorporated towns should enter town site lands at the federal land office and purchase them in trust for the inhabitants. They mayor of those towns would in turn grant "Mayor's" deeds to the individual property owners. Unincorporated land was often obtained by patent directly from the United States. The Recorder ceased using these books in the 1910s and transferred the information in them to a new set of books, still in the custody of the Recorder.