Learn how to research your ancestors using deeds and other land records, including how to decipher old deeds and draw a plat map. Plus, how and where to access land records on the Internet.
Land grants, homestead applications, plat maps, bounty land warrants and even deed records can be found online through a variety of sources.
Learn how to locate your ancestor's land deed, homestead grant, or other parcel of land on a map with this guide to plotting, or graphing, land ownership in the thirty Federal Land States of the United States. These step-by-step illustrated instructions explain the Township and Range method of land measurement.
Learn how to plat a piece of property from the deed description with this free land platting tutorial, complete with instructions and illustrations. Especially useful for genealogical or historical land research, or for placing a particular property on a map.
Learn how to trace your family tree in U.S. land records.
Learn how land was distributed by the U.S. federal government in the thirty public land states, including an explanation of the rectangular survey system, homesteading, and online databases.
Bounty land warrants were grants of free land issued to veterans in return for military service from the time of the Revolutionary War through 1855. Learn more about the different types of military bounty land warrants and grants, and how to research in bounty land warrant files.
Land entry case files are basically the paperwork files generated during the process of granting federal land to homesteaders, soldiers and other patentees. Learn more about what they can tell you and where to get them.
Learn what survey plats are, what you can learn from them and where you can get them.
Learn how land was surveyed in the 20 state land states, and how to turn those crazy land descriptions into a plat of your ancestor's property.
Describes the different types of sales that deed books usually record.
From OnBoard, Volume 1 Number 1, the newsletter of the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Reproduced here on their website.
A searchable database of over 2,000,000 pre-1908 Federal land title records for the 30 Public Land States (these do not include the 13 colony states).
An introductory article by Richard Pence.
A wonderful article by Linda Haas Davenport. Don't miss her other great articles in the
Learning Center!
From Shaking Your Family Tree by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G. on Ancestry.com.
This site was developed by Gary Krell with South Dakota in mind, but the information contained applies to any of the thirty Public Domain states where homesteading occurred.
Describes a number of ways to track down old deed information.
Get a first-hand look at the genealogical information which can come from US homestead files with these scanned images of 24 original documents pertaining to the DeSmet, South Dakota homestead of the family of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
How to decipher property descriptions used in old deeds.
An excellent article from the Genealogy Bulletin by William Dollarhide.
A very useful list of obscure units and terms that you will run across in land record research.
Not sure how long a "chain" or a "pole" is? Check out this comparison chart of units of measure commonly found in legal descriptions, such as old deed records.
Locate creeks and other features named in deeds. For more information about tracking down place names, check out the
Geographic Place Names section.
This is a self-paced online course offered free of charge by the International Internet Genealogical Society.
Searchable database of scanned images of Virginia land documents by which the Crown (1623 - 1774) and the Commonwealth (from 1779) transferred new land to individual ownership.
Michael John Neill tells us why tracking how your ancestor disposed of real property is just as important as determining how it was obtained.
