Minnesota Land and Property: Difference between revisions

Tract books may also serve as indexes to the case files. They are arranged geographically by township and range, so you have to have some idea of the legal description of the land where your ancestor lived to be able to use them. Some legal land descriptions are included in county records. The Minnesota Historical Society Library has many county maps, land atlases, and plat books that show townships and ranges. A few of these are at the Family History Library and are part of a larger collection called:

:*United States. Bureau of Land Management. ''Tract Books''. Washington DC: Records Improvement, Bureau of Land Management, 1957. (The Family History Library films for Minnesota are [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=607931&disp=Tract+books++ 1445629–76].) Use the Author/Title Search of the microfiche catalog to find film numbers. The tract books devote a page or so to each land section in a township. They list the name of the first owner of each quarter section or the certificate number or both.

Most of the names listed in the card files do not appear to be duplicated in the compact disc patent index listed above or in the tract books described below. Certificate numbers referenced in the card files do appear in the tract books, although most often the names of persons listed on the cards do not.

 

::[name of county], Minnesota – Land and Property

 

:*Minnesota Historical Society Research Center<br>345 Kellogg Boulevard W.<br>St Paul, MN 55102-1906<br>Telephone: 651-296-2143<br>Fax: 651-297-7436 <br>Internet: [http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/mho/regcent.html www.mnhs.org/preserve/mho/regcent.html]<br>Holds microfilm copies of tract books and township plats.