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== Online Resources and Websites == | |||
*[http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Land Patent Search] on the [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx BLM-GLO] website | |||
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== Homestead Requirements and Results == | == Homestead Requirements and Results == | ||
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The first step to finding homestead applications and related papers is to obtain the legal description of the land for which the homesteader applied. | The first step to finding homestead applications and related papers is to obtain the legal description of the land for which the homesteader applied. | ||
*'''Obtaining the Legal Land Description of Completed Homesteads' | *'''Obtaining the Legal Land Description of Completed Homesteads:''' The [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx BLM-GLO] [http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Land Patent Search] index '''only''' lists people who were actually granted a federal land patent (homestead or other government-to-individual land transfer).<ref>United States, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records, “Land Patent Search” at http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx (accessed 5 February 2010).</ref> If you find an ancestor in this index, it will provide the legal description of his or her land. | ||
*'''Obtaining the Legal Land Description of Incomplete Applications''' | *'''Obtaining the Legal Land Description of Incomplete Applications:''' The 60 percent of homesteaders who never obtained a patent because they did not finish are '''not''' in the Land Patent Search, but they '''are''' in the application papers. It is possible to get copies of unfinished applications from the [http://www.archives.gov/research/land/ingalls/index.html National Archives.] However, to see such application papers you must figure out another way to obtain the legal description of the land they started to homestead. | ||
:If you know the approximate location (at least the county), the legal land description of a homestead may be found in the General Land Office [[Grants from the Federal Government (Public Domain)#Obtaining_a_Legal_Description_of_the_Land|tract books]] available at the [http://history.nd.gov/archives/gentractbooks.html National Archives] in Washington, DC, or from [[Family History Library]] in Salt Lake City ({{FHL|607931|title-id|disp=on 1,265 microfilms starting with FHL Film 1445277 (Alaska and Missouri are missing)}}). These federal tract books are arranged by state, land office, and legal land description. States often have their own version of these tract books. For instructions see E. Wade Hone, ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36074524 Land & Property Research in the United States]'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997), appendices "Tract Book and Township Plat Map Guide to Federal Land States" and "Land Office Boundary Maps for All Federal Land States." Also, you may be able to obtain a legal description of the land from the county recorder of deeds in the county where the land was located.<ref name="NPSGen" /> | :If you know the approximate location (at least the county), the legal land description of a homestead may be found in the General Land Office [[Grants from the Federal Government (Public Domain)#Obtaining_a_Legal_Description_of_the_Land|tract books]] available at the [http://history.nd.gov/archives/gentractbooks.html National Archives] in Washington, DC, or from [[Family History Library]] in Salt Lake City ({{FHL|607931|title-id|disp=on 1,265 microfilms starting with FHL Film 1445277 (Alaska and Missouri are missing)}}). These federal tract books are arranged by state, land office, and legal land description. States often have their own version of these tract books. For instructions see E. Wade Hone, ''[http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36074524 Land & Property Research in the United States]'' (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997), appendices "Tract Book and Township Plat Map Guide to Federal Land States" and "Land Office Boundary Maps for All Federal Land States." Also, you may be able to obtain a legal description of the land from the county recorder of deeds in the county where the land was located.<ref name="NPSGen" /> | ||
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