Virginia Land and Property: Difference between revisions

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*Cavaliers and Pioneers. Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666

*"Revolutionary War Records: Virginia Army and Navy Forces with Bounty Land Warrants for Virginia Military District of Ohio, and Virginia Military Scrip..."Digital version at [https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/214915-revolutionary-war-records-virginia-army-and-navy-forces-with-bounty-land-warrants-for-virginia-military-district-of-ohio-and-virginia-military-script-from-federal-and-state-archives?offset=1 FamilySearch Digital Library].

Virginia has been a state-land state in which property has been distributed by the colony or state rather than the federal government. Various methods of distributing land have been used.  

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<br>'''Headrights'''  

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'''Obtaining a Patent.''' A settler petitioned a clerk of the county for a patent. The clerk made out a warrant certificate that was sent to the secretary of the colony where it was recorded, and a second certificate was made authorizing a survey. The surveyor sent his survey plat to the office of the surveyor-general which was established in 1623. The survey plat was returned to the secretary of the colony, and the original or a copy was kept by the surveyor-general's office. The secretary then made out the patent from the survey plat. The patent was approved by the council and governor.  

The individual who received a patent could sell it to someone else. In this case, the name of the second buyer was often written on the back of the patent and was recorded by the secretary of the colony's office or, after 1623, in the county court records.  

'''Finding the Records'''. Lists of headright grants and the names of persons brought to Virginia from 1623 to 1732 were recorded in the county court records and in the secretary of the colony's records. The [[Library of Virginia]] has these records as well as other grant records and various card indexes. The [[Family History Library]] has microfilm copies of:  

'''Bounty warrants, 1779-1860'''. {{FHL|414179|item|disp=FHL Film 29821 (first of 31 films), index on films 29850-51}}. The warrants are in alphabetical order. These are bounty land claim papers and may include affidavits giving service information, assignment of warrant to another person, enlistment date and place, discharge or death information, petitions from heirs, and the dates when bounty land was allowed or rejected.  

*Register, Military Warrants numbers 1321-1553, 4057-5478; and preemption warrants 1783-1787. {{FHL|583030|item|disp=FHL Film 29653 item 3}}.

Headright grants and land patents to 1800 have been indexed and published in:  

Northern Neck Proprietors maintained their own records:<br>  

*Joyner, Peggy Shomo. ''Abstracts of Virginia's Northern Neck Warrants and Surveys''. (1653-1781) 5 vols. Portsmouth, Va.: P.S. Joyner, 1985-1987, 1995. {{FHL|476302|item|disp=FHL Book 975.5 R2j v. 1-v. 5}}.<br>

The [[Family History Library]] has several other publications of Virginia land records. These include lists of pre-Revolutionary landowners that have been transcribed and published in:  

*''Virginia Military Bounty Land in the Northwest Territory''. Signal Mountain, Tenn.: Mountain Press, 2010. Free online surname index and purchase details at [http://www.mountainpress.com/books/va/details/va-0717w.html Mountain Press] website. [Identifies Virginia Revolutionary War Patriots who received bounty land in the "Territory North of the River Ohio."]

*''Virginia Land Records: From the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary College Quarterly, and Tyler's Quarterly''. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 1982. {{FHL|209566|item|disp=FHL Book 975.5 R2v}}. See [[Virginia, United States Genealogy|Virginia Genealogy]] and [[Virginia Periodicals]] for information about these periodicals.

A useful guide to Virginia landowners in the early nineteenth-century, based on tax records, is:<br>  

The [[Virginia Taxation]] article provides further information about quitrent and other records that help identify&nbsp; Virginia landowners.  

For a history of early land companies and policies, see:  

*Robinson, W. Stitt. ''Mother Earth—Land Grants in Virginia, 1607-1699''. Williamsburg: 350th Anniversary Celebration Corp., 1957. {{FHL|64845|item|disp=FHL Book 975.5 A1 no. 81}}.

Land transactions after the original patent was issued have been recorded in county deed books. Many independent cities in Virginia also kept their own records. The original deed books are kept in courthouses. You can obtain copies by contacting the appropriate clerk's office—usually the clerk of the circuit court.  

The [[Family History Library]] has microfilm copies of most pre-1880 deed books and indexes.

{{Virginia|Virginia}} {{U.S. Land and Property}}