LAND RECORDS
Land records are deeds -- proof that a piece of land is owned by a particular individual at a particular time. The information you receive from the records will vary, but you will at least get a name, the location of the property, and the period of ownership.
Federal Land Records -
With the formation of the Federal Government, all lands lying outside of the original 13 states and the later formed states of Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, were deemed public-land states. Michigan is a public-land state. Public land was dispersed to individuals, states, corporations and companies in a number of ways, by a number of acts of Congress.
Military bounties were given from 1775 to 1855 as a free land to induce men to serve or as a reward for military service
Credit sales - most of the land sold by the federal government between 1800 and 1820 was sold on credit at no less than $2.00 and acre.
Cash sales - most land sold after 30 June 1820 was sold for cash at no less than $1.25 per acre.
Homesteads - with the enactment of the Homestead Act in 1862, cash sales were largely replaced by homesteading. Under various homestead acts, the federal government gave land to settlers who had improved the land and lived on it for a designated period of time. These land grants were often times in 40 acre parcels.
In 1836, the United States opened a land office in Ionia. But, most of the land office records have been transferred to the Bureau of Land Management in Virginia.
** Before the homesteaders, soldiers, and other patentees received their patent, some government paperwork had to be done. Homesteaders had to file applications, witnesses had to testify that the homesteader had actually lived on the land, and those purchasing the land were issued receipts. These documents are on file at the National Archives.
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The Ionia County Register of Deeds holds real estate records for Ionia County that date back to 1834. Indexes are alphabetically arranged by year, in which you may find whether your ancestors owned property in Ionia County. It is a time-consuming process, but the documents may give clues to where the property owners came from or where they went upon selling property in Ionia County.
Time restraints on staff prevent them from doing this kind of search for those from out-of-town, but the public is welcome to use the records if they can stop by the office. If you are not able to personally visit the Ionia Register of Deeds, it might be a good idea to hire a professional researcher to check out these records for you.
___________________________________The following information may be found at the State Archives of Michigan :
Rural property inventory, 1937-1938 - Record Group 54-10 and 66-73
Tax / assessment rolls:
1840-1900 - Record Group 68-25
1883 - Record Group 69-37
1910,1920,1930,1940, 1950 - Record Group 71-134
1903-1906 - Record Group 79-49
1960 - Record Group 82-101
___________________________________Broderbund software sells CD-254 - Michigan Land Records 1807-1908 (some Ionia County records are included in this index).
A sample entry from this index:
Name: Ervey, Andrew J.
Date Signed: Jan 5, 1875
Land Office: Ionia
Acres: 80
Access number: MI2940__.306
Image number: 00018898
Authority code: 272002
Act/Treaty date: Apr 24, 1820
Statutory reference: 3 Stat. 566
Entry classification: Sale-Cash Entries
This tells us that an individual by the name of Andrew J. Ervey, purchased 80 acres of land through the Ionia land office on Jan 5, 1875. The sale was a cash sale. The access number and the image number are used by the BLM so that the actual document can be retrieved. The authority code refers to the congressional act that covered the transfer of this particular property from the United States government to an individual. An actual copy of this document can be obtained from the BLM at a cost of $1.25 each.
The Bureau of Land Management built this data base from information contained on the original copy of the land patent/certificate/document maintained by the Secretary of the Interior. The records are stored and maintained by the
Bureau of Land Management Eastern States
7450 Boston Boulevard,
Springfield, Virginia 22153.
The public may contact or visit the Eastern States Public Room at the above address, Monday through Friday (excluding Federal holidays), from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.(eastern standard time).
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This may help you in determing where you ancestors land actually was located.
Michigan has just one meridian dividing the state
into east and west, and one baseline from which the townships are numbered north and
south.
The state meridian, starting at the Ohio state line, is the county line between Hillsdale
and Lenawee Counties. As it moves north, it runs inside several counties, but can also be
found as the county line between the following pairs of counties: Clinton-Shiawassee,
Gratiot-Saginaw,
Roscommon-Ogemaw, Crawford-Oscoda and Otsego-Montmorency.
The first township east of the meridian is Range 1 East (or R1E), and they're numbered
consecutively from there. Some townships contain all or part of more than one "survey
township," but the numbering system is uninterrupted regardless of legal township
names or boundaries.
The state baseline is a lot easier. It's Eight Mile Road in the Detroit area, also the
northern county line of Wayne County. This line runs all the way across the state as the
northern county line of the following counties: Wayne, Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun,
Kalamazoo and Van Buren.
The first township north of the baseline is Township 1 North (or T1N).
The system is generally written "township" (north or south) then
"range" (west or east).
Each standard "survey township" is six miles by six miles (36 square mile
sections), so you can use townships to roughly estimate distances. Somerset Twp. (T5S,
R1W) in Hillsdale County is just west of the meridian and about
24 miles south of the baseline (there are 4 survey townships between it and the baseline).
The northeast point of Isle Royale is in T67N, R33W, or about 396 miles north of the
baseline and 192 miles west of the meridian.
So, in Kent County, Bowne Township in the southeast corner is T5N, R9W, and the other
townships would be numbered to the west and north from there.
This may be more than you needed (or wanted!), but I thought I'd post it anyway for those
new CCs who may not be familiar with Michigan's geography, or who live outside of the
state.
Regards,
==
Tom Kephart
Executive Producer, Kephart & Associates (www.kephart.com)
Editor & Publisher, BLUEWATERTODAY.COM (www.bluewatertoday.com)
County Coordinator, St. Clair Genealogy/MIGenWeb