Land

One of my favorite online databases is the General Land Office Records, maintained by the US Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management.  (https://glorecords.blm.gov).

It can provide some really great information, if your ancestors purchased land from the federal government.

For example, I knew my extended BLAKESLEY family left Ohio some time after the 1840 census and settled in Illinois by the time of the 1850 enumeration.  By using GLO Records, I was able to narrow that window to 1848/1849.  (See screenshot above.)

I was also able to pinpoint the locations of the property purchases, and calculate the distances between them.  (See illustration below.)  Two brothers Amasa and Warren Blakesley bought land in McHenry County, Illinois, in the spring of 1848.  Their parcels were less than eight miles apart.  In the autumn of 1849, Amasa's son John bought a third parcel about fifteen miles to the southeast.

#52Ancestors