Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore Subscribers Edition Stories & Photos The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness

Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Frontier in American Culture by White and Limerick, see below

The Homestead Act of 1862 by Richard Pence.

      Locating Homestead Records. At the time I did my research for homestead records, one needed to know the legal description of the land before the records could be located. That is, section number, township number and range number as they were recorded in that fashion. If you knew the county you could cut down considerably on how much you had to search. If you knew the township, even less searching was required. However, there has been quite a bit of indexing of the land office records since that time and record indexes for most of public land states east of the Mississippi are now available on CD-ROM. In addition to the particulars of each claim, the CD-ROMs contain the necessary reference numbers that you can use to get copies of the actual records. For further information, contact: Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, Attn: Public Services Section, 7450 Boston Boulevard, Springfield VA 22153. (Note that there is generally little information of a genealogical nature in federal land records; however, the record for my great grandfather, Daniel Adelbert Stanley, contained a list of his children with their ages.)

Gary Krell provides this terrific step-by-step Procedure to Homestead Records. In part, he suggests:

      If you follow this procedure exactly, your search should proceed smoothly toward what we hope is a rewarding end! Please Note: Although we concentrate on South Dakota here, this method can be used for any Public Domain State.

Step One       Write to the Register of Deeds in the county where your ancestor held property, giving the name and approximate dates for the landholder of interest. Ask them to locate all property transactions for that period and to advise you of their findings, pointing out which transactions involve Land Patents. (If you are at a loss for words, look at the sample letter included here to get some ideas.) The Deed Recorder should reply (sooner or later) with a list of the deed recordings and/or transfers that they have found, along with their requirements for obtaining copies of same.

Step Two       Purchase copies of any of these records that you think might relate to a homestead claim. You will receive them (sooner or later!) by return mail. These documents will give you the exact Legal Description of the property, and, if it was an original homestead claim, the Land Patent Certificate Number, along with the name of the General Land Office where it was issued.

Step Three       Send this information to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) — sometimes called the Suitland (Maryland) Branch — with a request for a copy of the Land Entry Case File. Be sure to include the following information: State, Land Office, Transaction Type, Document Number(s), Patentee's Name, and Land Description. Use our sample letter as a guide. The address is:

Step Four       You will receive by return mail (sooner of later!) a standard form indicating one of a number of possible responses: a) They couldn't locate the case file. This has never happened to us, but we understand that it does happen. You're on you own from here!
b) They found the records, have copied them for you, but you must return the form with your payment within XX days in order to receive them. Otherwise, your copies go in the recycle hopper!
c) They have enclosed copies of the records for you, and request that you send them your payment in return. Do so without delay. After all, this is your government attempting to save time and money. (And you never know when you will need NARA again!)
As of July 14, 1997 a new fee schedule for land entry case files (and all other paper records) is in effect. The new charge will be $10.00 per file.
As you can see, this process is very simple (once you know how to do it!), and is potentially very rewarding. We encourage you to pursue it.
Archives I Textural Reference Branch (NWDT1), National Archives and Records Administration, 7th and Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20408
Send a separate request letter for each Land Patent Certificate No. that you have. DO NOT SEND PAYMENT along with your request! Failure to follow these steps carefully will cause an additional delay.

• Hibbard, Benjamin, A History of the Public Land Policies, Benjamin Horace Hibbard, A History of the Public Land Policies (New York: Macmillan Co., 1924; reprint ed., Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965)
  
• History of the Bureau of Land Management
  
• Waste of the West, a unique website that points out how some people took advantage of various homestead acts.
  
• Gates, Paul Wallace, History of Public Land Law, published in 1968 (Washington: Government Printing Office) as part of a congressional review of the administration of the public domain. Gates is unquestionably the outstanding writer on the history of the public lands and his 1968 book is a remarkable political and administrative summary of a complex subject. His chapter on the Homestead Act of 1862 is well worth reading. History of public land law development, [more widely] published by Wm. W. Gaunt & Sons, ISBN 0912004622. See list of all his books about land policy
  
• Mark Howells. This article first appeared in the April 1997 issue of the Journal of Online Genealogy and has many valuable suggestions for how to research land records and how to address government departments along with how not to do it.
  

• This website by Richard W. Etulain includes a full bibliography of works that explain Turner's Frontier Thesis and many other aspects of the frontier experience.
  
• These websites: here and here are about the book, The Frontier in American Culture by Richard White and Patricia Nelson Limerick, a marvelous story of the parallel between Turner and Buffalo Bill.
  
• This website is a great overview, providing both links to and capsules of many of the major works about Turner and his frontier thesis.
  

• Homesteading and land laws in the 19th century and details of how settlers claimed and purchased their land, and the connection with Frederick Jackson Turner and his Frontier Thesis. Shared from Subscribers Edition archives
  
• Links to sources about homesteading and land laws and advice on how you can conduct your own research. Issue 17
  
• George Bacon, early Northwest mortgage lender, who helped settlers finance their land and homesteads, and his book, Booming and Panicking on Puget Sound. Issue 17
  
• The Kelley Strip, the "DMZ" no-man's land that served as the border between old Sedro and Woolley town. Issue 17
  

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