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What Property Records Can
Tell You about Your Family's Past
Property records can tell you a lot about your
family's past. Real estate leaves a paper trail. Deeds, wills,
deeds of trust, property transfer agreements, mortgages, homestead
records, land grants, all can go a long ways towards helping you
trace the path that your ancestors took to reach the area where
you grew up.
Once example of how some people use property records when tracing
family roots involves the family of the American pioneer and
explorer Daniel Boone. Boone is well known as an explorer, who
opened up the Kentucky wilderness to settlers, and the state of
Kentucky lays claim to him for sure, but he lived many other
places as well. Daniel Boone grew up as a child of Quaker parents.
His family originally emigrated from England to Pennsylvania and
owned property there. They eventually settled in North Carolina
and Daniel learned his love of the outdoors in the North Carolina
wilderness where his family owned property. But when Daniel Boone
came of age he travelled a great deal, and in addition to
exploring, he settled. He purchased land in Virginia and settled
there for a time, and later did the same in what would one day be
Tennessee. So you can see that the Boone family itself lived in
four states - or what would eventually be four states - before
migrating to Kentucky, state number five. But Daniel always longed
for better land with fewer neighbours and sought elbow room. After
many years in Kentucky he moved to the Spanish wilderness near the
Mississippi River, near the city of St. Louis in the present state
of Missouri. Daniel's son, Nathan Boone, had his father's
wanderlust and went down to the southwest corner of Missouri to
found the small town of Ash Grove, in the corner of the state that
is near the current Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas borders.
Property records of the time form a clear paper trail of the
travels of the Boone family, Daniel and his children that are used
by the many researchers today who claim ancestry of Boone and his
kin.
The small town of Ash Grove holds a gathering once
a year, the Nathan Boone festival, to honour this early pioneer.
With an average of 200 descendants of the Boone clan coming into
the town to visit the restored old Nathan Boone homestead. Copies
of the land records are available in the adjoining museum for all
to see.
The Boone family is just one example of how American families
travelled, and how land records can be used to map the moves. The
Jameson family is another prime example. Originally from Virginia,
they moved east to Tennessee and Kentucky like the Boones, and
then on to Missouri, but they didn't stop there. On to Kansas, and
then westward, the Jameson's were bound for California because of
talk of a gold strike, but didn't get quite that far. When they
reached Utah poor health caused them to cut the journey short.
Today they own a great deal of land in Salt Lake City, all travels
documented by land records. But one member of the family didn't
stay put. Land purchase records indicate that the youngest son of
the Jameson's actually went back east, to Ohio, where he bought
land in the city of Cleveland and became a shopkeeper.
One genealogical researcher, tracing her lineage back to England,
was delighted to find such extensive property records in the old
country. Her family was poor, but they owned a small farm, and
paid taxes on it every year, which gave her access to a great deal
of information about her ancestors that she would not have had
otherwise. This of course led to records at the local church, and
helped her in her quest to find her family roots. In her case, it
seems that the family went from Wales to England, and was granted
a small piece of land for services performed for a nobleman.
Amazing what one can find when researching property records, isn't
it?
When you do genealogical research there are many tools you will
find of value. Check out property records and add them to your
tool kit and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the new wealth of
information they present.
About the Authors
Paul Duxbury and Kevin Cook own
www.amateur-genealogist.com and www.our-family-trees.co.uk two of
the leading Genealogy Websites. In addition Paul owns a wide
range of exciting websites which can be viewed at
www.paulduxbury.com
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