University of North Dakota, Grand Forks

Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections

Family History Guide

LAND RECORDS

NORTH DAKOTA TRACT BOOKS (OGL #846) record the microfilmed original public domain land transactions dating from the 1870's to approximately 1920. Access is by township and range numbers. Information includes the name of the buyer, date of sale and purchase price, size and legal description of the land, and final certificate number if an entry person proved up under provisions of the law and is entitled to a patent. It is this number that is necessary to locate a case file at the regional Bureau of Land Management Office in Billings, Montana.

MINNESOTA (OGL #846), SOUTH DAKOTA, and WISCONSIN TRACT BOOKS are also available for selected counties. Records include the original land transactions for the western counties of Minnesota bordering on North Dakota, and scattered counties of South Dakota and Wisconsin.

NORTH DAKOTA GLO PLATS (OGL #847) include microfilmed General Land Office maps of the original federal government surveys of land prior to settlement. Some North Dakota land was surveyed as early as the 1860's. The plat includes the names of "squatters" and the size of their holdings, in addition to geographic structures, such as mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, trails, etc.

Hone, E. Wade. Land and Property Research in the United States. MyFamily.com, 1997.
CS49 .H66 1997

Johnson, Hildegard Binder. Order Upon the Land: The U.S. Rectangular Land Survey and the Upper Mississippi Country. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

A study basic to the understanding of the federal survey of public domain lands and its relationship to the history of the Upper Mid-west.
HD210 .M53 J63

ONTARIO LAND RECORD INDEX (OGL #848) is a microfiched computerized listing of original land holders in Ontario, Canada dating primarily from grants issued to United Empire Loyalists in the 1780's to those issued to veterans of the Boer War, 1899-1902. Access is provided by either the surname of the landholder, or by town or township. Entries include name, date of purchase, type of transaction,legal description, and the original source of information.

Morin, Gail. Manitoba Scrip. Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 1996.

Index of Metis and original white settlers who applied for land scrip which entitled them to 160 acres. Metis were required to be living in Manitoba on July 15, 1870 and whites in June 1874.
E99 .M47 M675 1996

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Chester Fritz Library UND, Chester Fritz Library, Department of Special Collections
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Last modified 20 November 2006
http://www.library.und.edu/Collections/Famhist/land.html