When you discover a lengthy file for an ancestor, how do you deal with the many pages it may contain and the information it holds? Do you transcribe it? Create an abstract? What if you can’t read some of the handwriting? Four tips can get you started in working with original documents. Transcription or Abstract – What’s the Difference? You may have heard the terms abstract or transcription in regards to genealogy and wondered about the difference. Both are very useful when working with something like a probate file, land application file, or pension file. These collections often contain multiple...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about United States Homestead Records. Do you have anyone in your family who took advantage of the Homestead Law of 1862? It is estimated that 2 million individuals applied for up to 320 acres of free land and your ancestor might be among them. We talk about two applicants for 320 acres in New Mexico about 1906 and 1911 and the details we learned about their family from the case files obtained from the National Archives. Links BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy – conference website Those Valuable Homestead Records article...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how land grants and patents were received from the federal government. Diana tells about the process for our ancestors who applied for a land patent in federal land states and the papers that were created in the process. She ordered the Land Entry Case File from the National Archives for Thomas B. Royston and tells all about each paper contained in the file and its genealogical use. We also discuss headright grants in the Virginia Colony and George Land Lottery records. Links Back to the Basics with Land Records: Part 3...
Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about United States land records, specifically deeds. We talk about how to use the deed index and how important it is to learn how the index is organized. Whether it’s a direct, indirect, russell, or other index, you will want to know how to find your relative’s name in it. We also talk about our ancestor, Edward Raymond Kelsey, and how we found a deed for his land and what it was like. Links Back to the Basics with Land Records: Part 2 – Deeds – blog post by Diana Back to...
In our podcast episode today, Diana and I discuss several reasons to research land. A land record may reveal the following: a family relationship, clues to past or present residence, associates, evidence of migration, and more. We also explain the differences between “state land states” and “federal land states” in the United States system of land distribution. We look at the metes and bounds system of land measurement as well as the grid system (township and range). Links Back to the Basics with Land Records Part 1 – blog post by Diana Diltsgd, a FamilySearch Research Wiki user, “Federal Land...
How did your ancestors receive their land? Did they win the land lottery? Could they have received a bounty land grant for military service? Perhaps they homesteaded and lived on the land long enough to obtain a land patent. If your ancestor was the first person in the chain of land transfer, he would have either received the land directly from the colony/state or from the federal government. After the initial land distribution, the subsequent transactions for that parcel of land were recorded in deeds at the county courthouse. It is possible to trace the land an ancestor owned back...
Are you ready to make new discoveries in land records for your ancestors? In Part 1 of our series on land records, I shared several reasons to research the land. A land record may reveal the following: a family relationship, clues to past or present residence, associates, evidence of migration, and more. I also explained the differences between “state land states” and “federal land states” in the United States system of land distribution. We looked at the metes and bounds system of land measurement as well as the grid system. Now it’s time to dive into the various types of...
Why would you want to search land records as part of your genealogy research plan? Are they really useful? How do you find them and what information can they hold? These are some of the questions we’ll be looking at in our new series on land records. If you’ve been wanting to delve into the land but haven’t felt comfortable, in this series I’ll demystify land research and show you how its done. As a researcher in the southern United States, land records are the backbone of my work. Why? As the country grew, the lure of new land was irresistible...
Diana and Peggy Lauritzen at the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy, 2018 When is the last time you went outside of your genealogical comfort zone and learned something unrelated to your usual research area? One of my favorite sayings is, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” That statement especially holds true for genealogy. Attending the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy last week, I decided to try out some classes in areas where I’m not a specialist and find out what I didn’t know. I attended classes by experts Peggy Lauritzen, Curt Witcher, Paul Woodbury, and...
When is the last time your immersed yourself in the history of a research locality? You might know the records well and have a basic understanding of the history and geography, but reading a full length book is an excellent way to bolster your genealogy knowledge. As a southern United States researcher I often come across land records that state something like “land obtained by the Creek Session of 1832.” I had a vague understanding of the five civilized tribes removal from the states of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama in the 1830s but hadn’t connected that to...
