I've worked for wimpier generals. Although I swore I would never write about genealogy again, she talked me into a two-parter. Didn't know what hit me. Laura told nudged me over to the Official Federal Land Patent Records Site run by the Department of the Interior. It provides access to more than two million Federal land title records for Eastern Public Land States, issued between 1820 and 1908.
Land patents document the transfer of land ownership from the federal government to individuals.
An Ancestor, Thomas B. Ives, bought and sold 30 parcels of federal land in Mississippi. The interface is user-friendly. If you have relatives who passed through Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, or Wyoming, this is a must-see site. My brother is the historian in our family. Periodically he searches for our surname, Konschak , using the regular search engines such as Altavista , HotBot and my new favorite, Google .