How to Obtain an Original Land Patent
To realize its manifest destiny to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the United States began offering free land in the 19th century to pioneers willing to trek out west and settle down. The formal transfer of land to homesteaders was made with a document called a land patent. The original land patent records are now maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has made millions of the records available online.
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Instructions
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Visit the Land Patent Search site at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (see References).
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Use the "Basic" search form if you know what state you want to select for your land patent search.
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Click on the "Standard" search tab if you want to search on all states at once. Select "All States" from the state pull-down menu.
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Enter the name of the person whose land patent record you want to find.
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Review the search results for the person you're looking for. There are often several results for one name, so use additional details, such as the date of the patent or the county in which the land is located, to help in identifying the most relevant records.
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Click on the "Document Image" tab to view an online image of the actual land patent. The images are available in several formats, including GIF and PDF. Click on "Certified Copy" if you want to order a copy of the image directly from the Bureau of Land Management. There is a fee for this service.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit pioneer homestead image by mavrick from Fotolia.com
