Land and Tax Records

Land records can help you determine where your ancestors lived and when they lived there. This may help you figure out relationships and link generations, as well as help you determine why your ancestors moved where they did. Certain records like bounty land warrants can tell you of your ancestor’s military service. Land records can also help you distinguish between two possible matches of your ancestor with the same name.

If you haven’t done so yet, this is a great time to create a list of known residences for your ancestor, along with the time they lived there, together with source notes for this information. Record data from census records and city directories, as well as birth records of any children. If you know for certain they owned land (census records and city directories should tell you if they rented or owned) start looking for those records first.

You will need to find out how the geographical area was known at the time of their residence, understanding boundaries and town or city names. Reference historical maps to see which counties records to search. See Mapping Your Ancestors for more help in this area.

First Land Grants

The first land claims in America (other than from Native Americans) were from various governments as they sent their settlers to colonize the new world. These countries included England, France, Spain, Mexico, Russia, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

England’s colonies operated under charters issued from the crown, and each form of colonial government could issue land grants. For example, the Virginia Colony used headright grants offering land as incentive to those who pay for passage of new settlers. These early records of colonial land grants are usually held in state archives for each state.

The United States gained land of territories through wars, land purchases, and treaties - such as the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, and the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819 in which Spain signed over Florida. Read more about the territorial evolution of the United States on Wikipedia.

After the treaties, existing land grants to settlers were usually honored. Some, however, were not. One such example are the various community land grants made by Spanish and Mexican governments, supposed to be kept in place by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 (that ended the Mexican-American War) but were not honored by the U.S. and still disputed in some places today.

All of these territories acquired by the United States would become federal land, or public land states, as explained further below.

Original Ownership: State Land States vs. Public Land States

The division of land in America then fell into two categories, land owned by States and land owned by the Public. The University of Mass in Amherst offers this explanation:

“Two basic divisions of the fifty states exist for land records. The original Thirteen Colonies plus Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Vermont are State Land States. These states initially retained the rights to ownership and distribution of their land. State Land States divided property in a town system of lots and used the metes and bounds surveying system, a method which relied on natural landmarks to describe the property.

The remaining thirty states are Public Domain or Public Land States. They were formed from the public domain - land originally acquired and owned by the federal government. These states used a grid system of townships and sections to establish and identify property.” - UMass Amherst

Search the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), previously called the U.S. General Land Office (GLO), for the names of those who gained federal land in the public land states, or were granted land from military land bounties or homestead warrants. Most records from the federal government show only the first recorded land owner. These records include land patents, survey plats and field notes, land status records, control document index records, tract books, and land catalogs.

In state land states, most records are kept by local counties (except for Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island which kept record by town) though you’ll also find records in old town histories. Land records may also be found in state archives (for state land and public land states), or at local historical societies.

Land Grant Process

The first transaction of land from the government was called a grant (or a patent, or also a land entry), and thereafter transactions between citizens were recorded as a deed (a written legal document transferring ownership of a property). While original deeds are kept by home and land owners, copies were entered in deed books by county clerks and records kept at the county level. Some announcements of sales were published in newspapers as well. All deeds are public record.

If a person wanted to purchase land or apply for a bounty, they first had to submit an application or petition. For example, if an individual qualified for land under a military bounty land grant, they first had to apply and show proof or their service. Once the application was approved, a warrant was issued. This warrant, or certificate, authorized a survey. Warrants were the first step to a legal right to the land, and could be sold to others, but did not declare ownership of any land.

The survey was a sketch of the land, or a plat, showing exact boundaries and acreage. The applicant’s name was recorded on plat maps and in tract books. Finally, the patent is issued. This is the final, official deed from the State or Federal government which gives rights and title to the new owner, who can then sell or give the property to another party. A copy of the patent is kept by the government, along with all the other surveys and applications, in case files.

Types of Early Land Grants

Headwrights - grant of land, usually 50 acres, given to settlers of the original 13 colonies, first used in Virginia in 1618. Increased indentured servitude in which people sponsored someone’s voyage to Virginia in exchange for years of work on the land (as well as a headwright). Those who purchased enslaved people also benefited by receiving land, until the rules excluded this practice. Could be bought and sold. (See Wikipedia)

Homestead grants - encouraged migration west after The Homestead Act of 1862 by granting up to 160 acres to those who lived on and developed the land (See National Archives)
Military Land Bounties / Bounty Warrants - by granting land instead of paying soldiers, the government was able to recoup some costs from the Revolutionary War. Also encouraged longer military service and commitment as warrants awarded after wars were won, and may have required certain amount of service. Federal and state level (though some colonial states didn’t have land to spare), with some making claims to both. Not just Revolutionary War, also War of 1812, Mexican War, some early Indian Wars, and others. (See FamilySearch)
Spanish Land Grants - The Spanish and Mexican governments issued grants to their settlers in areas of Florida, Texas, California, and New Mexico, many of which were later honored. Included land set aside for community use, not just private land. These Spanish grants may have been called ‘mercedes’ and Mexican grants of land referred to as ‘ranchos’. (Read about some of the history of these grants in New Mexico)
Donation Land Claims - the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 was used to help settle the Oregon Territory through 1855. (See the Oregon Secretary of State Page)
Indian Deeds - as early colonists took land from Native Americans through trade, treaties, or other means, the land exchange was written as an Indian deed. The town of Providence, Rhode Island was originally created this way, until a charter was issued from the King of England. (View some of these original Native American deeds from within the state of Massachusetts)

Other types of land grants included those for education and Universities, and also for railroads and other transportation.

Also note that these early land grants were only for white people, and even after the Civil War formerly enslaved Black Americans had difficulties gaining land. Read about the short-lived Field Order 15 in “The Truth Behind ‘40 Acres and a Mule’ by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.