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Research by Subject: Genealogy Land Records (General Resources) |
WVC Library Home Page > Research by Subject Menu > Genealogy > |
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| How Land Records
Can Help: Prior to the Civil War most free American adult males owned land Many times when the courthouse burned the land office survived They place your family in a specific time and place They often state or imply kinship ties They help you with your family's cluster information Deeds often are the ONLY record where a wife in early America is given a name |
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More Land Resource Pages: |
Most American land records (that still exist) have been filmed and are available to borrow at
your local Family History Library Check the
FHL
Catalog using a Place Search - enter county and state and when a list is
retrieved choose LAND & PROPERTY. In New England you may also wish to do a
town search. Because patents, warrants, surveys, deeds etc. are only indexed by the grantor or grantee this means it is crucial that you have worked on your family cluster so that you look at his neighbors documents and his relatives documents etc. to see if they mention HIM. To find the creek, mountain, stream etc. named in land records search GNIS Many times people avoid land records because they involve either reading film or digitized images that are in difficult handwriting. We grow up in a time when we are used to forms and printed words. Modern day handwriting can be bad but at least it is standardized. In early times this was not the case and it takes practice and patience but soon becomes much easier the more you do it. Remember that you usually don't have to be able to make out EVERY word to get what you need from a document. Handwriting 101 by Angie Grigg is an extremely helpful article that tells some history and gives examples General Land Guides (Comprehensive) Land Records in the National Archives - primarily an overview of the land entry case files - they also have some sample homestead records scanned so that you can see what they look like. Land Records Research Directory has overviews of all the states and includes courthouse addresses Land Records Research Wiki from FamilySearch Taking the Mystery Out of Land Records by Linda Haas Davenport is full of great tips U.S. GenWeb Archives is a site where people can upload many kinds of transcripts or indexes etc. that they have transcribed or abstracted including various land records For Land Terms / Vocabulary like "How long was a Furlong" use Google - there are land term lists online but the thing you want is always missing and Google works as well. If the term is a very common word start with wikipedia using a search like: wikipedia land perch Plat Maps The largest collection of online plat maps is the Land Ownership Map Collection 1860-1918 at Ancestry but they are constantly being scanned and indexed all over the place online. I have included some of the larger collections in the Patent / Warrant pages but don't neglect Google. Many states published a statewide atlas that included a plat map of each county in the late 1800s. Try terms like: Mahaska Iowa plat map or Atlas Mahaska County Iowa or Land Ownership Maps Iowa or Van Buren Township Patent Map or Washington County New York Patent Map |
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Anne Livingston @WVC Library
