Land and Property Research

by E. Wade Hone

When early settlers left their homelands to start a new life in America, they had dreams of owning their own land a prospering from their own efforts. They were suspicious of all forms of government and did their best, in many cases, to be invisible to a variety of record keepers. But when it came to ensuring that their precious land was, without doubt, their own, they were careful to provide all of the information requested of them by the various government agencies. It is this care in reporting that makes this reference as valuable as the most comprehensive and useful review of land and property research for genealogists.

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction

517 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Karla Huebner]

Useful reference book. It gives a good overview of its topic and is chock-full of information for anyone doing American genealogy or land-related history.

Interesting snippet: through the BLM website I had learned that my possible great-grandfather received tree-claim land, and this book told me that getting a tree-claim required planting thousands of trees and keeping them alive for ten years. Apparently only 25% of tree-claims were successful (if you didn't keep enough trees alive you couldn't keep the land). Hypothetical great-grandpa and his father were each successful with their North Dakota tree claims.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally bought this for a genealogy course I took that about American family & law. This was optional reading at the time, but I didn't have time to read it anyway. I only managed to read through it this time due to a project as part of my internship at the Utah State Archives. I was able to start research, sort, organize and index real land records for public use. I admit that I did more skimming than reading,

I enjoy that this book is divided up into sections, which include historical references to all possible records dating back to Colonial America - including French, British, Spanish, and Mexican lands. The differentiation of state-land & federal-land states, as well as the plats that were developed based on the meridians measured in various parts of the United States.

[Dayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential guide to the topic. I could not do without it on my bookshelf and reference it again and again.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of land and property records in the United States. It has references to books that explain more about specific areas.

[Dereka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reference book and much of it does not apply to the land research I am doing in Franklin County Massachusetts but what information I did find was helpful.