Land records generally record the acquisition and disposition of land. While document recorded in the “land records” of county or jurisdiction are typically deeds transferring title to property, occasionally they are other documents that are related to the title of a piece of property. It’s not just land records that may may provide information about your ancestor and their land ownership.
Property tax records (often maintained at the same jurisdictional level as land records) may indicate that the owner is deceased or that the widow or someone else is paying the taxes on the property. There may not be a deed transferring the ownership from the estate of the deceased to the heirs until years after their death. If you need to estimate a date of death for a land owner and death records are not extant, consider looking for a death clue in the property tax records.
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I was able to determine a property owner’s month and year of death based on tax records, including the law as to when taxes were assessed.