Clark, Hall, and Peck and White Brothers records

The Clark, Hall, and Peck and White Brothers records consist of abstracts of title, index card locator files, atlases, maps, probate extracts, project files, and grantor-grantee files. The collection primarily deals with properties located in the cities and towns of New Haven County, Connecticut including New Haven, Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Clinton, Derby, Durham, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Killingworth, Madison, Meriden, Milford, Naugatuck, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Prospect, Seymour, Wallingford, West Haven, and Woodbridge. Properties located in a number of other Connecticut cities and towns are also indexed by these materials. Abstracts of title are the most numerous types of documentation found in the records. The type and amount of materials relating to each property vary significantly.

A title search is usually performed by an attorney in conjunction with the sale or mortgage of property. The searcher reviews the records contained in various offices of town clerks in order to reveal any encumbrances upon the property. The types of records maintained by town clerks would include deeds, mortgages, liens, rights of way, easements, restrictions, taxes, or other matters that might affect the use of the property. By examining the public records, the attorney could provide his client, usually the purchaser, with a "snapshot" of the legal status of the property, what interest did the seller have authority to convey, what encumbrances would there be if the property was purchased, and whether the buyer could use the property for the purpose he intended. In addition to recorded instruments such as deeds and mortgages, searchers also rely on probate records, vital statistics, and court records, since they disclose other obligations affecting the property. Generally, each instrument involved in a title search shows the owner [grantor or seller], the buyer [grantee], the date, the volume and page where it is recorded in the town clerk's office, the legal description of the property, and the particular terms of the instrument.