Reading a Tennessee deed reference: book, page, instrument, and how to use them

Updated August 29, 2026. Written by the JB PARCEL team.

On most Tennessee parcel cards you will see something like Deed book 1847, page 322. That is the assessor telling you where the current owner's deed is filed at the county Register of Deeds. It is the most useful five digits on the card, because the deed is the only document that tells you exactly what was conveyed, by whom, with what restrictions.

Book and page versus instrument number

Older recordings and many rural counties index by book and page: the physical volume and the page the deed was copied onto. Larger counties moved to instrument numbers, a single sequential id per recording, often with the year in front. Davidson uses an instrument number that begins with the recording date. Shelby uses a year plus a sequence. Both systems point to the same thing, and every register's search accepts whichever it uses.

Pulling the deed

1. Find the county's Register of Deeds site. Most Tennessee counties contract with one of a few vendors, and the search pages look alike: search by book and page, by instrument, or by party name.
2. Enter the reference from the card. If the card shows book and page and the register uses instruments, search by the owner's name and the year of the last sale instead.
3. Open the image. Many registers show the first page free and charge a small fee for the full document. It is worth paying.

What to read on the deed

• Grantor and grantee. Confirm the grantee matches the owner on the assessor card. A mismatch usually means a transfer the assessor has not processed yet, or an owner who died and the estate has not been settled.
• Consideration. The transfer tax paid is printed on the deed, and in Tennessee it is $0.37 per $100, so you can back into the real sale price even when the assessor shows $0.
• Legal description. Lot and block in a recorded plat, or a metes and bounds call for acreage. If the description references a plat, pull the plat too; it shows easements and setbacks the zoning map does not.
• Restrictions and easements. Subdivision covenants, utility easements, shared driveways, and rights of first refusal live here or in documents the deed references. This is where land deals die after the contract is signed.
• Type of deed. A warranty deed carries the seller's guarantee of title. A quitclaim carries nothing. A trustee's deed came out of a foreclosure.

Walking backward

Each deed names the prior recording it took title from. Follow that reference and you have the previous owner, the previous price, and the previous date. Three or four hops back is usually enough to understand a property: who has owned it, how long, and what they paid. It is also how you spot the gaps a title company will charge you to cure.

What we show and what we do not

The card shows the deed book and page or instrument number the assessor recorded, the instrument type where the county publishes it, and a link to the county register's search. We do not republish deed images or attempt to reconstruct prior owners from the assessor data, because that data holds only the current one. When the county does not publish a deed reference, the card says so instead of leaving a blank.