DeKalb County, Alabama, in the northeastern part of that state, was established in 1836 from the Cherokee Cession of the preceding year. For a number of years, Dorothy Smith Duff has been systematically transcribing or indexing the earliest records of DeKalb County. Her previous efforts have resulted in an index to marriages and collections of probate and will and estate records. The work at hand indexes DeKalb County, Alabama, deed records for the period 1835-1895. The original records for this book are stored in the probate office in the DeKalb County courthouse; the author, however, relied upon a microfilm database of the records produced by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1979, except in those cases where legibility was at issue.

The volume refers to about 15,000 deed transactions. It is arranged alphabetically by grantor and gives the name of the corresponding grantee followed by the citations.