1. Name and residence of seller (grantor)   2. Amount paid to seller   3. Name of buyer (patentee)   4. Description of the land   5,6. Date, signature of seller   7. Witnessing land agent   8. Statement of comissioner submitting patent to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior   9. Approval of the Secretary of the Interior, date and time patent was filed

Land Patent

Land Patent

After the Revolutionary War, the federal government became the owner of the land not within the boundaries of the then existing states. Congress authorized the distribution of land through sales, homesteading, bounty land warrants, private land claims, and various types of grants. Regardless of the method of distribution, a land patent was issued to transfer each parcel land from the government to an individual.

A land patent is similar to a deed in that it signifies the transfer of land from one owner to another. However, a patent is the document used to transfer a parcel of land for the first time. Thus, only one patent exists for any parcel of land.

The example transfers land from "Kishicoqua, a member of the Miami Tribe of Indians" to Ambrose N. Karr. In this case the Department of the Interior had to precess and approve the sale and issue the patent.

Patents issued by the English crown or colonial governors became the property of the sovereign states after the American Revolution. The original and/or microfilm copies of the colonial patents should be in the custody of each state's archives or library.

A computerized master index to persons receiving (patentees) a federal patent prior to July 1, 1908 is in progress. The following states have been completed: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

For a complete understanding of patents and public land record see Sandra Hargreaves Leubking, "Land and Tax Records" in The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Rev. Ed. Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997.

© Palladium Interactive, Inc. 1997.