22 January 2013

BLM Tract Book Discovery

FamilySearch has recently placed the Bureau of Land Management Tract Books (titled: United States, Bureau of Land Management Tract Books, 1820-1908) on their website. Using the books takes a little bit of patience and a little bit of knowledge, but it's not impossible.

William Newman purchased property in Tipton County, Indiana, in the 1850s. Locating that parcel in the index was my first foray into using these materials.

This was known because Newman was located on the BLM website as having obtained a patent for property in section 29 of township 22N 5 E in Tipton County . A query was performed on the BLM website to determine the names of all others purchasing property in that section. One of them was William Tinsley, brother-in-law of William S. Newman.

This table shows all the entries from patents in the Bureau of Land Management website for the same section of property as the  William Newman purchase (29).

Names
Date
Doc #
Aliquots
COOK, JEFFERSON
12/1/1849
32698
NE¼SW¼
FLETCHER, STOUGHTON A
1/1/1850
33006
NE¼NE¼
HALL, ROBERT
1/1/1850
32751
W½SW¼
JACKSON, JOSEPH
3/20/1849
32070
S½NW¼
NEWMAN, WILLIAM S
1/1/1850
32863
NE¼NW¼
RABB, SAMUEL G
5/1/1850
34185
NW¼NE¼
STEWART, ROBERT
12/10/1850
34391
NW¼SE¼
TINSLEY, WILLIAM
1/1/1850
32862
NW¼NW¼
WOLFER, LEONARD
1/1/1850
32990
S½SE¼
WOOD, THOMAS
5/1/1850
34358
SE¼SW¼

The BLM database indexes completed patents. The tract book contains additional references and notations. The tract book indicated that William did not intend to just purchase the property for which he finally obtained a patent. His name is also listed in the tract books as having made an initial payment on another forty acres in the section, but that his deposit was refunded in 1854.

The entries in the tract book are helpful, but the actual patents (on the BLM site) indicate the county of residence of the purchasers, which is helpful in distinguishing between individuals and something that is not indicated in these tract book entries. The materials need to be used together--not in isolation.

I knew that William's patent was in the volume for the Indianapolis land office as that was indicated on his patent image obtained on the BLM website.

Vol 1, Indianapolis, page 71--part of the left hand side.


Vol 1, Indianapolis, page 71--corresponding right hand side.

There were no huge revelations, but I was surprised to see that William had also started the process to purchase additional property in this township.

On my list of things to do with this information are:
  • Look at the residences of the other purchasers to determine where they were from at the time of the completed patent. Newman and Tinsley were from Rush County, Indiana. It is possible that other men--particularly those obtaining property at the same time--were from that area as well.
  • Plat out the parcels to allow me to visualize the relationships between the locations.
  • Look at purchasers of property in adjacent townships.