Searching Bergen County Deeds

I've been doing some research in the deed room, more accurately known as the "Searching Vault"  at the Bergen County Clerk's Office at One Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack.  There are land records of all kinds, including deeds, mortgages, and maps, from the 18th to the 21st century.  Anyone may go to the vault to search for and copy records.  Copies are 5 cents each.  What else can you get for a nickel? 

There are staff members to "help" and some of the professional researchers will answer a question or two, but, you're mostly on your own.  So here are some basics:

If you're new to land records see Harold Henderson's blog post on Genealogy and Land Records.  There are some great links at the end of the article. 

In Hackensack you can enter the parking lot for One Bergen County Plaza and tell the attendant you are going to the Clerk's Office.  You get 2 hours free parking.  (If you say, Deed Office, you only get 1/2 hour.  ??)  If you're going to be there longer, you're supposed to park in the main parking lot (for a fee) off of Court St., east of the Courthouse.

Inside the vault, there is a mix of old and new technology.  The Grantor and Grantee indexes for mortgages and deeds are available in book form.  (Some of the later deeds are indexed on the "new" computer system.)  Deeds are available in the deed books, filed by book number on the shelves.  Except that Book 2412 and before, (1940s and older) are digitized on the "old" computer system and must be accessed there.  If you identify a map name or number through a deed, it can be viewed on the computer or purchased at the map window.  Use the computers where you first go into the vault, as that makes it easier to print.  A staff member must release the print jobs after you send them.  Even though some of the records are digitized, none are available online.

If you go all the way into the deed room and then, left, all the way to the back, you will find map drawers with tax and other maps by town.  These are not the maps mentioned in deeds, but they can be very helpful in your research.

What did I find?  I'm trying to trace the deeds on a cemetery which is on a private residential lot.  Fortunately, the deeds for the last 30 years, or so, carry an easement for access to the cemetery for "all interested parties."  However, I have an inkling I might be able to find more (a map maybe?) if I trace it back further.  To make the research more interesting, I've run into an inheritance, a bankruptcy, a deed with two plots of land in one transaction, and a description of the property that includes a vague direction (called a meander)--"along the line of the old ditch."  None of these has put a stop to the search, but I'm stuck now, in 1941, with a deed that has no reference to the prior deed--so back to the indexes!