Monday, May 24, 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy - Challenge 20


Week 20: Play with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Government Land Office (GLO) Federal Land Records (http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/) web page. This is a great resource. Your task this week is to explore the land patents and land surveys sections. Input some search terms and see what pops up. Don’t be afraid to click links and see what happens. You’ll be surprised by what you find.


The BLM Land Office Records site, contains three data sets: Federal Land Patents, Federal Land Status Records, and Federal Survey Plats and Field Notes. Each set of records does not contain information from all of the same states and not all states are covered. More information is being added so don't forget to check back often. The FAQ's will cover most of your questions, be sure to review those first. You will want to spend more time on the Visitor's Center tab to get more detailed review of the data sets.

I was able to find a Land Patent record for one of my Greenstreet lines (my husband and I both have Greenstreets). I would really like to get hold of some of the Survey Plats, but was unable to find anything at this point. This site is a valuable resource to fill in some of the gaps you may have in your ancestor's time lines. I'm looking forward to visiting the site again after more records have been added to the collection.





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