Land Records Research
Key Web Sites
- Bureau of Land Management (.gov site)
- Research Guide – U.S. Land Records (raogk.org) – formerly on the defunct site, www.familyhistory101.com.
Look for any of the following in land records.
- Look who signed the record — and any other document.
- Look for your ancestor in the census of 1870.
- This census lists the Township. This alone will put you without SIX SQUARE MILES of your ancestor.
- Look for Maiden Name in the area.
- Look at Related Documents.
- Look at churches in the area. The cemeteries are most likely to be full of relatives.
- Go to the Courthouse and find when and to whom land was sold.
- It may give you clues to wills and minor children or heirs and outstanding debts.
- Remember court records are about money not people.
- Look online at Random Acts of Kindness, https://raogk.org/. Click on State Guides in the NAV menu. Then the county in which the land record was recorded.
- Note from a genealogy presentation 10+ years ago: If looking at “a current county map with road, streams, churches, and cemeteries as they are today. In the margins of these maps are listed the townships and Ranges … this [can] get [you] very close to the cemeteries [where your] ancestors are buried …”
- From the same presentation, the speaker strongly encouraged to research the evolution of the county.
- The ROAGK site has maps of each state from the oldest map available.
Posted: 1/22/2022