Land Records are very valuable for genealogical research, and how to use them can fill volumes. In Tennessee, understanding the history of land settlement and land grants is crucial to using the records successfully. Particularly helpful record collections include:
One way land records have been valuable to TNGS researchers is in identifying which part of the state an early settler may have lived in. It is not unusual to get a request for more information on a person who was “born in Tennessee about 1820.” We tackle that by looking at early land grants and other sources to identify areas where that surname is common, and then doing further research in those counties.
For further information on early North Carolina / Tennessee land grant records available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, click here.
- the Ancestry.com database “North Carolina and Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931,” available to Tennessee residents through TEL, as well as the North Carolina and Tennessee, Revolutionary War Land Warrants, 1783-1843.
- Earliest Tennessee Land Records and Earliest Tennessee Land History, by Irene Griffey, and
- the two volume set by Barbara, Byron and Samuel Sistler, Tennessee Land Grants.
One way land records have been valuable to TNGS researchers is in identifying which part of the state an early settler may have lived in. It is not unusual to get a request for more information on a person who was “born in Tennessee about 1820.” We tackle that by looking at early land grants and other sources to identify areas where that surname is common, and then doing further research in those counties.
For further information on early North Carolina / Tennessee land grant records available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, click here.
