Post #584316 by TikiTomD on Sun, Apr 10, 2011 5:43 PM

Really excellent advice in this thread. Another suggestion... in Florida, each county property appraiser has a web site that contains a wealth of information on each parcel of property, such as street addresses, owners and their addresses, building outlines and square footages, maps and aerial photos, a history of sales and references to the documents in official record books (also frequently online) associated with the sales.

You can search by owner, street address, tax identification code and, in some cases, by subdivision name. I often just search by street, pick out a parcel that looks to be in the area of interest by its street address, and just start exploring through the map views and individual parcel records (switching views) until you find the target.

The map views show adjacent parcels and streets, and you can zoom in or out. The online information may be limited to the past several decades, but there are often pointers back much further in time, especially through the holdings of surviving family and descendants. This information is part of the public records here, and there are presumably equivalent online resources in other states. I found this an especially helpful source in doing Moon Islander research.

-Tom