Advertisement
 |
 |
|
Land, Property Taxes, Homesteading Records.
-
Land titles and property records are some of the most numerous of all the types of documentation that is available in the United states.
While you may not always be able to pinpoint the marriage date or birth date of an ancestor, you will most likely always be able to find the area in which they lived based upon the taxes they paid, the properties they owned or the homestead they lived on, simply because such things were considered at that time, far more important than the recording of others things such as marriages.
When used as a supplement to the census you can track your ancestors fairly nicely using property or land records of one variety or another.
Seeing an ancestors name on the tax roles of a town or city, where it was not prior to then, means that either they purchased a property or moved to that area within a year or so prior to the addition of their names to the tax rolls.
If they had property there and the name disappears you will know that they’ve either sold or may have relocated and can begin to search other areas.
Homesteading paperwork is particularly nice in that it gives the name of husband and wife as well as children who lived on the homestead in some states.
The person wishing to get a homestead, or a free piece of land, was called an entryman, and they would go to the district office and complete their application for the area or tract of land they wished to receive.
Then came a waiting period where they had to live out the details of the contract, in most cases that they would live and work the land for a specific period of time, to fulfill the homestead act of their area.
Two land offices were usually involved, the GLO register who kept the books of tracts and documentation from the entryman, and took fee payments.
At the end of their required time span, the final paperwork was set up by the register, who stood as proof of the homesteaders claim that he had lived there and “proved the claim” at which point all of the paperwork went to the General Land Office in Washington DC where it was stamped for approval and the land was granted to the homesteader who received what was called a patent, or the title transfer from government to person.
Two copies of the patent existed, one sent back to the original land office while the other stayed with the GLO in Washington.. The new owner went into his county courthouse and had the patent recorded, making his land ownership completely legal..
The original papers, called case files or land entry files, remain with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC. They are public records and can be obtained from NARA when the right information is provided and a fee is paid
NARA website has details for getting copies of the homesteading paperwork you might require for your genealogical work, while you can gain other property tax records on state or county levels.
