Land Records – Page 2

What is GLORECORDS?

The General Land Office (GLO) – Eastern States Office houses the Secretary of the Interior’s copies of over 9 million GLO records. To preserve and make these records available to the public, the “General Land Office Automated Records Project” is scanning and indexing originals on a free database as part of the Bureau of Land Management: www.glorecords.blm.gov Currently, these include Patents, Survey Plats, Field Notes and Land Status Records. The database provides access to people receiving lands under many federal programs, not just the Homestead Act of 1862. Records can relate to the survey plats and field notes back to 1810 with land title records between 1820 and the present.

The database only covers states termed “Federal Land States” which were set up on the township, section and range system. This includes: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio (part), Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The other states are known as “State Land States” and they alone with parts of Ohio are measured in metes and bounds.

The BLM website has a handy glossary of terms you will find in the records. There is also a handy explanation to the Rectangular Survey System (Township/Range, Section Number, Aliquot Parts). Basically, a section contains 640 acres, half section 320 acres, a quarter section 160 acres, half of a quarter 80 acres, and a quarter of a quarter 40 acres.

Land can be searched by state, county, name of the person, or by coordinates (land description). If using the coordinates you will be able to view your ancestor’s neighbors. They may be friends are family members from Ireland.

If you find a record of your ancestor receiving land, then the next step is to contact the National Archives to obtain the Land Entry Case Files: www.archives.gov/research/land/index.html They cover the pre-1908 period, and are the records of most interest to genealogists. Sometimes these provide more intimate details such as birth places!

Oregon and Washington Donation Lands

22 Aug By Dwight Leave a Comment

If you have ancestors settled in the Pacific Northwest of the United States prior to 1855, then you may document them through the Donation Land papers. The Donation Lands of Oregon and Washington Territories provide one of the most descriptive application processes of any action in the U.S. during this era. There were over 7,500 applications.

The land applications for the Irish are only second to those filed by American born citizens. As the records often provide exact birth places, this makes the Donation Lands a primary source. Even if your ancestor didn’t settle in the Pacific Northwest, use them to document relatives who did.

Oregon Territory was established in 1848, originally from what is now present day Oregon, Washington, Idaho and a small portion of Wyoming. Washington Territory was separated out in 1853. Most applications involve present day Oregon and Washington. Donation Land applications begin in 1850 and provided free land to white and mixed-blood settlers who arrived in the territories before 1 December 1855. This was in exchange for four years of residence and cultivation. Applicants were given up to 640 acres. Sometimes the claims for land went on for decades.

The original files are at the National Archives: www.archives.gov with microfilm copies at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org Both the Washington State Library: www.sos.wa.gov/library/landrecords.aspx and the Oregon State Archives: http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/records/aids/land.html has information on the Donation Lands.

The database “Genealogical Material in Oregon Donation Land Claims” is on Ancestry: www.ancestry.com The Genealogical Forum of Oregon: www.gfo.org/donation/index.htm has an online index. You can also use the Bureau of Land Management database to search Donation Lands: www.glorecords.blm.gov

There will be no shortage of online articles to guide you through the process. However, you will need to obtain the application to see how the person answered the questions posed.

The Four Provinces of Ireland

19 Jul By Dwight Leave a Comment

I often hear people say that their ancestors were from a particular province. For the budding family historian, this is often announced with some pride as if they know where their ancestors were from. Then I inform them that provinces are regions. However, the name of the province is a start.

Historically, Ireland is divided into the provinces of Connaught, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. Present-day Northern Ireland encompasses most of Ulster except for the three counties of Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan, which are part of the Republic of Ireland. Ulster can be particularly confusing for the beginner. The provinces and counties within each are as follows:

Connaught: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo

Leinster: Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leix (Queens), Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly (Kings), Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow

Munster: Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford

Ulster: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry (Derry), Monaghan, Tyrone

I commonly see the province names in published family history books, online pedigrees, military pension records, and sometimes in church registers. The most common ones are Ulster and Connaught as they have traumatic histories which stick out in family lore. While Presbyterian immigrants did not always come from Ulster, the vast majority of them did. This in effect narrows down that province as the most likely candidate from which to begin that search. So many Irish Catholics were traumatized by the Potato Famine and poverty in Connaught that the very name has an emotional component attached to it. I seldom hear Leinster and Munster passed down.

If you see one of the four provinces in a record it does provide you with a guide in your research. This can be especially helpful with common surnames.

Landed Estates Database

13 Jul By Dwight Leave a Comment

One of the major sources I use after I’ve exhausted church and tax records for an area are the landlord papers. These are termed “estate papers” and are basically the private papers of the local estate where the tenants leased and rented their homes and farms. In these papers I look for lease agreements, and especially rent books. They can be deposited anywhere or not preserved at all. Remember, these are private family papers, and historically there would be little reason for the landed families to think they would ever be used for genealogical purposes.

The problem has always been identifying where papers have been deposited. Once you know the landlord or land owner of a townland, then you are ready to actually begin the search for any deposited papers. The job is easier for western Ireland with the “Landed Estates Database”:

This is an online database of all Landed Estates in Connacht and Munster provinces: www.landedestates.ie If this link doesn’t work, then try the longer one: http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie:8080/LandedEstates/jsp The database covers: Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo in Connaught Province; and Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick,

Tipperay and Waterford in Munster Province. It contains references to over 1,450 houses and 1,650 estates. The database is maintained by the Moore Institute for Research in the Humanities and Social Studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

The “Landed Estates Database” provides information, and pictures on the estate, the estate houses, documentary sources, and a list of estate records from about 1700 through 1914. While not necessarily aimed at the family historian, the database can be used for our purposes just fine. I use it on a regular base in my client research.

This database brings the landlord-tenant relationship alive as you have hands on information to the estate which affected your ancestors. If rent or lease books survive, then the next step is to have them searched.

Western Canada Land Grants (1870-1930)

22 Jun By Dwight Leave a Comment

There is a source which is important in the search for Irish birth places. This is the land grants for the Western Canadian Provinces. Canadians and Americans need to remember the border between the two countries is very long, and very open. Families went back and forth whenever land opened up in a border state or province. Often people stayed for generations. Others would move on.

The National Archives of Canada (NAC) has indexed to the Letters Patent issued by the Lands Patent Branch of the Department of the Interior: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/western-land-grants/index-e.html The database includes Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the railway belt of British Columbia. This is just the index, which is very basic. The homestead applications themselves, which often provide birth place of the applicant, are held at the provincial archives. The homestead applications and index for Saskatchewan are on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL). A microfiche index to the Manitoba grants, and the grants and index for British Columbia are also at the FHL.

The Alberta Genealogical Society: www.abgensoc.ca/patent/index.htm has an extended online database which includes references not found in the NAC database.

The provincial archives all have quality and helpful archives: Provincial Archives of Alberta: http://culture.alberta.ca/archives/ The Archives of Manitoba: www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/index.html and the Saskatchewan Archives: www.saskarchives.com/collections/land-records has an entire section and database dedicated to the topic of land. The British Columbia Archives has an online guide to its homestead records: www.bcarchives.bc.ca/BC_Research_Guide/BC_Pr_Emptn_Hmstd.aspx

This is an important topic as families moved from eastern Canada to western Canada, and north from the United States. Even if your family did not directly receive land in Western Canada, then by researching a cousin or sibling who did, may still prove where the entire family was from in Ireland.

Finding Your Ancestor’s Home Site

25 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

Step 1 – Finding the ancestor in Griffth’s Primary Valuation (in this case Lot #6)[/caption]One aspect of Irish research I find very attractive is the fact it is possible in many cases to locate the exact home site in Ireland where your ancestors lived. To me this is more personal than being able to trace your ancestors back to the Middle Ages.

As a genealogist, I’ve had the honor of tracing many ancestral home sites for clients. It’s as personal for me as the researcher taking pictures for my clients, as it has been for the client. Now how is locating the exact plot of ground accomplished?

The first step is to realize you need a townland where your ancestors lived. Tax lists such as Griffith’s Primary Valuation (1847-64) not only provide the lot number within the townland where the house was located, but there are maps showing you where that particular lot was located within the townland. Even if your ancestors immigrated a hundred years before Griffith’s Valuation, it is often still possible to trace a plot of ground into the Griffith’s tax lists.

For me, this is the personal aspect of identifying and then setting foot on the site. Even if it’s only a cow or sheep pasture today, it doesn’t matter to me. I am seeing what the ancestors saw and walking where they walked.

My graphics for this blog feature the sequence of research steps on a case I did in Ballygambon Lower, Whitechurch Parish, County Waterford. It includes finding the family in Griffith’s, working with the Griffith’s Map and then going onsite taking a picture.

Irish Registry of Deed Indexes (1708-1929)

24 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

There are two manuscript indexes to the Registry of Deeds on microfilm at the Family History Library, 1708-1929 (FHL) and an ongoing indexing project online. Understanding these indexes is your key to this valuable set of records.

The “Surname Index” (Grantor Index) is alphabetical by first letter of the seller’s name. This is a limitation as deeds are usually a tangle of owners, lessors and sub-lessors. It is arranged by time periods. Another limitation is that it does not identify the county or townland of the property until after 1833.

The “Lands Index” (County Index) is arranged geographically. The handwriting can be terrible or the quality of the microfilming problematic. This index is currently only way to access all registered transactions for a specific place.

The Lands Index is divided by county, Corporation Town, time period with townlands listed by first letter. From 1828 the County Index divides entries by barony within a county. From 1828, the cities and Corporation Towns are listed separately. From 1832, the year of registration is given in the index.

The Lands Index lists volume, page and memorial number of the transaction. Once you have the reference, then you are ready to examine the deed books on microfilm at the FHL.

The “Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland”: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~registryofdeeds is an online index being compiled by volunteers. The purpose of the project is to index all of the names that appear in the memorial books at the Registry of Deeds. This includes wills and marriage settlements. The index can be searched by name, grantor, family name and memorial number.

Deed index research can be tedious, but it is a necessary evil in comprehensive Irish genealogy.

Historic Terms Used in the Irish Registry of Deeds (Part 2)

15 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

Continuing from yesterday’s blog, I want to finish my dictionary of terms found in the Irish Registry of Deeds. I have utilized many sources in compiling both lists. This includes genealogical books and books on English land records. The laws governing Irish deeds were based upon those governing English deeds.

Marriage Settlement: Also termed “articles of agreement” it contains mention of the marriage itself and family data binding the two families together through land transactions.

Memorials of Deeds: The common term referencing the deeds. The memorial itself is a copy of the original deed sent to the Registry of Deeds and entered as an official document.

Mortgages: The deeds of mortgages either say they are mortgages or that the property is conveyed with a redemption clause. Mortgage deeds are complex; the purchasing of a mortgage served the same purpose as the modern stock market.

Parcel: A piece of land sometimes in a common field.

Partition: A deed of partition is an agreement to divide an estate.

Pound: An enclosure maintained by an authority for the detention of stray or trespassing cattle as well as for the keeping of distrained cattle or goods until redeemed.

Quality Lot: The part of a holding distinguished by the quality of the soil for valuation purposes.

Recital: The preliminary statement in a deed showing the reason for its existence and explaining the operative part.

Relief of Dower: The assurance by a married woman to the purchaser of land that she relinquished her right to dower in it; generally unnecessary, as the woman joined with her husband in making the conveyance.

Remainder: A future interest in property. An interest in a particular estate that will pass to one at some future time, as on the death of the current possessor.

Severance: The division of an estate into independent parts.

Title: The means by which an owner of land has the right to possess that property.

Trust: The estate of a person who is invested with the legal ownership of land on the condition that it is held for the benefit of another.

Historic Terms Used in the Irish Registry of Deeds (Part 1)

14 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

I am offering a two part dictionary to assist you in understanding what you are seeing. There are certainly terms I have not listed, but I’ve tried to define the major ones.

Abut(ment): Land boundaries where the shorter sides are adjacent plots and the longer sides lie between them, such as in town lots.

Borough: A town granted Corporation status through a royal charter.

Conveyances: The transfer to another of the right, interest or title to a particular piece of property.

Demise: The transfer of an estate by lease or on the death of the owner.

Dower: The life interest of a wife in one-third of the lands which her husband possessed.

Exchange: A deed of exchange is a reciprocal conveyance of property by two parties.

Fee Simple: A freehold or estate of inheritance.

Freehold: A form of tenure in which land is held in fee simple, fee tail or for a term of life.

Grantee: A buyer in a transaction.

Grantor: A seller in a transaction.

Hereditaments: Property that can be inherited.

Indenture: A deed to which there are two or more parties.

Lease: Leases were for fixed period of time or for a period of the lives of persons alive at the time.

Lease and Release: It can refer to deeds of sales, conveyances, rent charges, actual leases, mortgages, and even marriage settlements.

Lives: Leases were often given for the term of three lives, until the last of three people named died.

Tomorrow I will continue this list of legal terms in a Part 2 dictionary.

Historic Terms from Irish Tax Records

11 May By Dwight Leave a Comment

In my continuation of historic terms, I would like to share the ones I find important from the tax lists. This would include the Tithe Applotment (1823-1837) and Griffith’s Primary Valuation (1847-64).

Applotment: The share of the total tax that was imposed upon each individual responsible to pay taxes.

Cottage: A dwelling house of small size, such as is occupied by farm laborers, villagers, miners, etc.

Demesne: Land occupied by a lord for private use.

Free: A squatter who does not recognize a landlord.

Glebe: Land occupied by Church of Ireland ministers.

Grange: Land formerly belonging to a monastery.

House: A building used as a dwelling or a public building such as a house of worship, courthouse, etc.

Immediate Lessor: A landowner who occupies a property or a middleman who leases from the landowner and, in turn, rents all or part of the property to another individual.

In Fee: Owner

Liberty: A civil unit, with authority granted by the crown.

Lot: A section of land with a single physical quality.

Manse: A ministers house.

Occupier: An individual or party who owns/leases/rents a tenement.

Office: A building which is a factory, mill, store, stable, cow shed, pig sty, etc.

Plantation: A section of an estate set aside for planting and cultivation trees and shrubbery for planting on the manse.

Ruin: Abuilding without a roof.

Tenant: An individual who rents/leases property by paying a stated rent to the middleman or owner.

Tenement: Any holding of land as well as a dwelling.

Waste: Ground under houses, yards, streets, small gardens, under barren cliffs, beaches, along the seashore and small bodies of water.

While these may not be the only terms you’ll find in the tax records, they are among the more common ones. They can help you understand what you are looking in the records.

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