Land Entry Case Files

United States Land and Property Case files

The National Archives preserves over ten million land entry case files which document the transfer of federally controlled public land to private ownership. These files indicate who applied for the land, if a patent (original title) was issued, and include a physical description of the property and where the land was located. The type of transaction is also shown such as cash entry, credit entry, homesteads, patents (deeds), timberland rights, or mineral rights granted by the federal government, and other conveyances of title such as Indian allotments, internal improvement grants (to states), military bounty land warrants, land grants from previous foreign governments, railroad grants, school grants, and swamp grants.

Related Wiki Articles

• Tract books history, preparing and how to use them, content, access, and related case files.
• United States, Bureau of Land Management Tract Books (FamilySearch Historical Records) describes the online federal tract book collection for 28 federal land states from 1820-1908.
• Grants from the Federal Government (Public Domain) explains public lands, how individuals claimed some of it, and the paperwork created during the process.
• BLM Land Patent Search discusses the index to eight million patented (finished) land applications, and military bounty land papers. Each entry in this index includes the land description useful for finding an ancestor in a tract book.
• Rectangular surveys includes a section about tract books. This article shows how principal meridians, baselines, townships, ranges, sections, and aliquots are used for land descriptions found in tract books and other property records.
• United States Land and Property page is a general discussion of land record research for genealogists. It serves as a table of contents to related Wiki pages about American land records including tract books, related land entry case files, and the BLM land patent search.

Related Websites

• Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records includes the Land Patent Search, instructions, and search tips.
• Form NATF-084 (pdf) used to order land entry case files from the National Archives.
• Land Records: Introduction and Links to Resources on Land Entry Case Files and Related Records National Archives explain land record research.
• Texas General Land Office Land Grant Search of over 665,000 land entries in Texas. Also includes grants from Spain, Mexico, and the Republic of Texas.

For Further Reading

• Kenneth Hawkins, Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49, Reference Information Paper, 114 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2007), 9. Internet version (pdf) At various repositories (WorldCat) FHL Ref Book 973 J53hrL
• E. Wade Hone, Land and Property Research in the United States (Salt Lake City, Utah : Ancestry Pub., c1997), chapters 8 and 9. At various repositories (WorldCat); FHL Book 973 R27h.