Jurisdictions Land and Property Records

Records that tell of people buying and selling real estate and personal property, paying taxes on those items, giving away property, and disputing property ownership represent at least half of the documentation in most county courthouses today. Those types of records have existed since the first permanent settlement in the American colonies.

All land in the colonies was owned by a ruling English monarch or proprietors authorized by the crown to pass title to private hands. Normally, passing title followed four steps:

Anyone wanting to take up land outlined in writing why the land should be granted to him in a petition, which was presented to those authorized to pass title. A warrant was issued certifying a person's right to a specific parcel of land and authorizing an official survey of that land. A surveyor drew a plat map and identified the parcel in a legal description. After the first patent or grant had been issued, subsequent transfers of that same parcel had to be accomplished in the form of a deed.

Different documents have been used to transfer land in the United States and its former colonies: Core Documents - warrants, surveys, plat maps, patents, grants, and deeds (including gift and quitclaim deeds) Bills of Sale - the primary instrument used to transfer personal property deemed important enough to be recorded Other Land Transfer Documents: dower releases, head right claims, bounty land warrants (issued in lieu of payment for military service), homestead files, mortgages, proof of squatter's rights, and sales for non-payment of debt

Petitions to take up land, warrants, surveys, patents, and grants were documents created by colonial governments and later the federal government when public land states evolved. Bounty land warrants and documents associated with homesteading were administered by the federal government. All other land, property and tax records were the responsibility of local county courts. The level of government that created a document maintained possession of those records.

Applications for bounty land warrants, accepted from veterans of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 have been indexed and microfilmed. The originals are housed and controlled by the National Archives. Any records associated with land grants made by the federal government, including those related to homesteading land, came under the jurisdiction and control of the Bureau of Land Management. Today those records are housed at the Public Land Office of record. See the Quick Tip for Military Record Jurisdictions for the location and addresses of National Archives facilities.

Genealogists have abstracted and indexed land and property records of many locations for publication. Copies of those publications and thousands of microfilmed land and property records can be found at the LDS Family History Library, its local Family History Centers, and in the genealogy collections of private, local, state, and university libraries throughout the country.

See the Quick Tip for Military Record Jurisdictions for the location and address of the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tax Records

Americans have paid a variety of taxes in the nearly 400 years since the first colonists arrived at Virginia. Colonial and state governments tasked towns and counties with collecting taxes, an assignment that has continued without interruption to current times. The types of taxes paid by our ancestors include:

Import Tax - stamps, paper, tea, and other imported items during colonial times Poll or Head Tax - levied on a male resident (beginning at age 16, 18, or 21 depending on the place), regardless of what he owned Real Estate Tax Personal Property Tax - horses, cattle, slaves, buggies, farm implements Special Item Taxes - knives, bowling alleys, hearths, etc. Tax lists and records have remained in the custody of the town or county in which they were created and can be obtained from the county clerk

Genealogists have abstracted and indexed tax lists and records for many locations for publication. Copies of those publications and thousands of microfilmed tax lists can be found at the LDS Family History Library, its local Family History Centers, and in the genealogy collections of private, local, state, and university libraries throughout the country.

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