Blog · September 30, 2026
What Is an Entry Number in the Index?
An entry number is the index line a clerk assigned when a document was entered in the daily or grantor index. It helps you find the book and page or the image. It is an index address, not a legal description and not a parcel number.
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The log of what came in
Recorders keep indexes so you can find documents by name, by tract, or by number. An entry number is one office’s way of numbering those index lines, especially in older daily entry books. The entry may list the date, the grantor, the grantee, the type of instrument, and the book and page where the image was copied. If your citation is Entry 1456 in Entry Book C, you use it to reach the book and page. You do not describe land as Entry 1456. A title report that cites an entry number is sending you to that index line. A tax map that cites a parcel number is sending you to an assessment account. Following the wrong one wastes a morning and does not mean the record was destroyed.
Names and the order of search
Grantor and grantee indexes are alphabetical in time bands. An entry number lets the clerk go straight to the line if the books are numbered that way. You still want the parties’ names as a check that you have the right line. Similar names in the same year are common. Read the description column if there is one. A one-line description such as pt lot 4 may be enough to reject the entry or enough to force you to open the deed. The abbreviated description in an index is not the deed. Clerks shortened words to fit a line. Do not plot pt lot 4 from the index. Open the instrument. County GIS owner names are a modern roll and will not match an 1890 entry spelling. Platbookmapper does not search grantor indexes.
From the entry to the plat
Once the entry gives you a book and page, or an instrument number, order that image. If it is a plat, read the sheet count. If it is a deed, find the plat citation inside it and make a second trip. This is a chain of pointers. Breaking the chain at the entry number and sketching from memory is how wrong lots get fenced. None of these steps requires a measuring device. A laser measure will not confirm you pulled the right entry. If two entries look alike, compare parties, dates, and the land description on the face of each deed. When the land decision matters, a title search by someone who uses these indexes daily is more reliable than a single lucky click.
What to do next
- Treat the entry number as a path to book and page or an image.
- Verify the parties and the date on that index line.
- Open the instrument before you trust the index abbreviation.
- Write the county with the entry number so it is not reused out of context.
The mix-up to avoid
Quoting an entry number as if it were the legal description in a new contract. The next reader cannot plot Entry 1456. They can plot the lot the deed describes, once the deed is opened.
Questions people ask
Is an entry number the same as a reception number?
Some offices used entry books historically and reception numbers later. The function is similar, a filing identifier, and the books are not the same series. Use the word the stamp uses, in the county that issued it.
What if the entry book is at the courthouse and the image is online?
Use whichever path reaches the same instrument. Confirm book and page or instrument number so the online image is the one the entry named. A search hit with the right name and the wrong year is a different deed.
Find the county map
Search the county on the Platbookmapper home page. The directory links to the official parcel viewer. It does not draw the lots, and the line on the screen is an assessment map, not a survey.
Not a survey. County GIS and tax parcel maps are assessment and planning layers. They are not a substitute for a recorded plat, deed, or licensed survey.