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Rectangular Surveys: Difference between revisions
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===== Tract books ===== | ===== Tract books ===== | ||
Tract books serve as a comprehensive reference to the millions of land entry case files held at the National Archives in Washington, DC. However, they are arranged according to the '''''land description ''''' rather than the name of the claimant. They include '''all''' applicants for federal land, including those whose claim failed to receive a patent because it was unfinished, forfeited, rejected or cancelled.<ref name="Hone" /> | Tract books serve as a comprehensive reference to the millions of land entry case files held at the National Archives in Washington, DC. However, they are arranged according to the '''''land description ''''' (township, range, and section) rather than the name of the claimant. They include '''all''' applicants for federal land, including those whose claim failed to receive a patent because it was unfinished, forfeited, rejected or cancelled.<ref name="Hone" /> | ||
'''Finding unpatented entry information.''' If you know (or can guess) the state and county where an ancestor started an unfinished, forfeited, rejected, or cancelled land claim, you can search page-by-page through each of the tract books for that county looking for the ancestor's name. When you find an ancestor's name, the legal land description and land office listed in the tract book is usually enough to order a copy of the case file from the National Archives. | '''Finding unpatented entry information.''' If you know (or can guess) the state and county where an ancestor started an unfinished, forfeited, rejected, or cancelled land claim, you can search page-by-page through each of the tract books for that county looking for the ancestor's name. When you find an ancestor's name, the legal land description and land office listed in the tract book is usually enough to order a copy of the case file from the National Archives. | ||