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Search the Land Records from All States or View Property Reports Now!
Nebraska is a public domain state in which land was initially granted by the federal government. The first homestead claim in the United States was made on 1 January 1863, nine miles west of Beatrice in Gage County by Daniel Freeman. His homestead is now the location of Homestead National Monument. Many of the settlers of Nebraska were Civil War veterans from the northern states of Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. Many were eager to obtain the inexpensive farm land available from the federal government.
The researcher should be familiar with the boundaries of the early land offices in Nebraska from 22 July 1854, when the first office opened in Omaha, until 1933 when the last closed at Alliance. Two good sources are Addison Erwin Sheldon, Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska, Vol. 22 (Lincoln, Nebr.: Nebraska State Historical Society Publications, 1936), and Homer Socolofsky, “Land Disposal in Nebraska 1854–1906: The Homestead Story,” in Nebraska History 48 (1967): 225–48.
Another helpful reference available from the Nebraska State Historical Society is the Reference Information Guide No. 7, “U.S. Government Land Laws in Nebraska 1854–1907,” by James E. Potter. This may be obtained upon request.
The Nebraska State Historical Society has records from the land offices and microfilmed copies of all the tract books. Some of these entries are indexed. If the exact land description is known, land patents for Nebraska may be obtained from the BLM, Wyoming State Office, 2515 Warren Avenue, Box 1828, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003.
The researcher should be aware that the railroads acquired nearly a tenth of Nebraska land from the federal government and sold it cheaply to settlers to encourage settlement and the development of commerce. The farm, which may have been called “the old homestead” in family tradition, may have first been farmed by this family but was actually acquired from the railroad at an early date. Therefore, it is best to chain the title back using the exact land description in the register of deed's office before going to the federal records. Most of the original records of railroad land sales were destroyed by fire, but the Nebraska Historical Society holds land records of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska.
After the first land purchase from the government, transfers of land are located in the individual county in the register of deeds office. Here, the researcher can search deeds, indexed by grantee-grantor, mortgages, and cemetery record deed books. Some offices hold the register of entries made at the land office in Lincoln under the Homestead Act of 1862. Many abstracts and claims are also located at the county level.
Find Nebraska Land Record Books at Amazon.com
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Excerpts From the Book "Family History Made Easy"
Prior to the Civil War, more than eighty-five percent of all Americans owned or leased land. Therefore, almost every researcher, whether a seasoned professional or weekend hobbyist, has required land records to document the existence, association, or movement of an individual or ancestral family. While many researchers may feel a sense of historical excitement when finding an ancestor in a land deed, many also fail to understand the importance of such a document and how land can be used to make vital links between generations; they are not aware that it can bridge distant origins and help solve even the most difficult problems. E. Wade Hone,
In Land and Property Research in the United States
U.S. House of Representative Private Claims, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 or Vol. 3
The right to own land has always been one of the great incentives for living in the United States. Yet researchers often overlook the importance of land records as a source of family history information. Written evidence of people’s entitlement goes back in time further than virtually any other type of record family historians might use.
Land records meet the needs of researchers in different ways and contain a variety of genealogical and historical data. They are a major source of information for many family histories and provide primary source material for local history as well. They are closely related to probate and other official court records and should be investigated in connection with them. Land and property are leading issues in the settlement of estates, and the majority of civil cases in the courts deal with real and personal property. Although land records rarely yield vital statistics, in many instances they provide the only proof of family relationships. Often they include the names of heirs of an estate (including daughters’ married names and a widow’s subsequent married name) and refer to related probates and other court cases by number and court name. In some places where other records are scarce, the land records take on extra importance. Occasionally these documents disclose former residences and more often provide the new address of the grantors or heirs at the time of the sale of the property.
Land records provide two types of important evidence for the family historian. First, they often document family relationships. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. One of land records’ most important qualities is that they are sometimes the only records that allow us to distinguish one person of a common name from another.
The National Archives has bounty-land warrant files, donation land entry files, homestead application files, and private land claim files relating to the entry of individual settlers on land in the public land states. There are no land records for the original thirteen states or for Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Hawaii. Records for these states are maintained by state officials, usually in the state capital. Searching for the record of a particular land grant from the federal government requires contacting both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Archives (NARA).
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