Welcome to our Reference Section. No need to whisper! If you don’t find what you’re looking for, drop us a line.
Getting New Land
- The Feudal Land System – Ain’t it great to be King!
- How Land in the Colonies Was Acquired – Patents and Grants.
- Bounty Land Warrants, by Jan Bishop McFarland – Another way of acquiring land.
- The Homestead Act of 1862, by Richard Pence – The original ‘sweat equity’ way to get land.
State by State History
- Indiana Land History
- Introduction to Ohio Land History
- Introduction to Tennessee Land History
- Introduction to Virginia Land History
Buying and Selling Land
- Transferring Land – The selling process.
- A Typical Deed – It’s not just legalese
Land Transaction Records. How they work, and where they are.
- Retracing the Trails of Your Ancestors Using Deed Records, by William Dollarhide
- Taking the Mystery Out of Land Records, by Linda Haas Davenport
- Deed Books and the types of deeds they contain
- How To Get Copies of Land Records
- Books Relating to Land Records – The records you seek may already be in print
- Other Internet sites with Land Record Information
Two Types of Property Descriptions Used in Deeds
- Metes and Bounds – Meandering streams and white oak trees
- U.S. Public Domain – Home on the Section, Township, and Range
Terms You’ll Come Across
- Surveying Units and Terms – Poles and Chains
- Legal and Other Terms – From the common to the obscure
- Corrections for compass declination errors – True norths are hard to find
Miscellaneous
- U.S. Geographic Name lookup – Locate creeks and other features named in deeds
- U.S. GenWeb – Gateway to local history and genealogy
- Cyndi’s List of Land Record Sites – An excellent list of related sites
- FindLaw – Legal resources, including Property Law