State governments are often asked to supply information on the ownership of operating or abandoned rail lines. Citizens' concerns range from issues of maintenance in the operating case to questions of ownership related to alternative uses in the abandoned case. This research developed a procedure for sampling county land records to determine the original railroad owners of rail right-of-way and the nature of that ownership. The instruments used to hold the land were categorized as either fee simple or easement. Based on the research, the dominant instrument was the right-of-way easement (60 percent), with fee simple holding 30 percent. Ten percent of the lines could not be classified beacuse they were composed of a mixture of these instruments. The procedures developed should be useful in the eastern United States where railroads had to secure their right-of-way.