Glossary

On a land patent record, the accession number is a code used to uniquely identify a land patent. An accession number directly relates a document image to the original hardcopy document. Depending on the type of patent, it will assume various formats.

• For a State Volume Patent (for the 13 eastern public domain states), it identifies the state, volume number and page number of the original GLO document .The format is SSVVVV__.PPP where SS is state code, VVVV is the volume number, and PPP is the page number.
• For Serial Patents, it identifies the unique numeric code assigned to each serial patent.
• For Military Warrants, Miscellaneous Volumes and other types of volume-based patents, it generally follows the the format of TT-VVVV-PPP where TT is the type of patent, VVVV is the volume number, and PPP is the page number.

On a plat record, an accession number is a unique number assigned by the GLO and posted on the plat. For Wyoming plats, the accession number is posted in the upper left corner of the document.

In the United States Public Land Survey System, an aliquot part is a legal subdivision of a larger section of land into halves or fourths.

The parcel or parcels of land granted to an allottee.

An individual who has been granted a parcel or parcels of land under the General Allotment Act (Dawes Act) of 1887.

Bureau of Land Management

The BLM is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior responsible for administering U.S. federal lands.

The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents

More info here.

General Land Office

The BLM General Land Office Records website provides online access to federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States, which are states that were created out of the public domain. The website offers access to images of more than five million federal land title records issued since 1820.

An allocation of a parcel of public lands or Indian Reservation lands given to a Native American for his individual use.

Name of location (usually a city or a town) where the General Land Office established a district land office to handle various land transactions. Issued patents were bound into volumes by Land Office names. Usually, several Land Offices existed for each state.

Land Patents are Federal Conveyance Documents created on the initial transfer of land titles from the Federal government to individuals. In viewing these documents, the following information may be helpful for interpreting the data:

The primary identification numbers are located in the upper left-hand corner of the document, e.g. a document number, warrant number, serial number or patent number, Indian allotment number, mining claims, etc. Beginning in July 1908 patents were identified with a GLO Serial number, that number appears at the top or bottom of the document. These numbers were assigned consecutively and filed numerically at the opening and closing of the various land offices. Military Warrant numbers are found in the body of these patents. Homestead patents have an assigned application number, which is not required when researching in this Web site.

Indian Patents: Under the general Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, and certain specific laws for named tribes, allotments of land on reservations were made to individual Native Americans residing on the land. There are two kinds of patents that allowed resale by the Native Americans:

• Indian Trust Patents were issued and held in trust for a period of twenty-five years. When the twenty-five years expired a direct sale of the land could be made.
• Indian Fee Patent was the actual title to the property of land entirely owned by an individual and their heirs (often issued after the 25-year trust period).
• Indian Homestead Fee Patent
• Indian Fee Patent (Heir)
• Indian Reissue Trust
• Indian Homestead Trust

Canceled Land Patent: Land documents that were issued and later canceled were marked "Cancelled" across the face of the certificate with either a stamp or a handwritten annotation. Canceled documents were usually replaced by another document. The Comments field for a canceled document will sometimes make reference to the document(s) that were used to replace it.

Fractional or odd-shaped tracts of land not generally describable by conventional aliquot parts. Lots are sometimes expressed as "Lot 12" or "Lot 12a." If a lot is included in a description of land, it will be denoted in the aliquot parts as a one- or two-digit number and may include a lower case alphabet. For example, "Lot 12a of the north-west quarter" is denoted as "12aNW" in the aliquot parts field.

An imaginary north-south line. The meridians frequently referenced on this site are principal meridians.

The name of the person who received the certificate. In some instances there may be multiple patentees, the names are listed in the order in which they appear on the document. Also, there may be additional names listed on the document, for example, maiden name, alias, heirs, assignees, company name, state or Native American name.

The term public land means any lands and interest which title is still vested in the Federal Government. The Secretary of the Interior through the BLM administers those lands within the several states.

A row or tier of townships lying east or west of the principal meridian and numbered successively to the east and to the west from the principal meridian.

A section is a regular tract of land, 1-mile square, containing 640 acres, within a township. It is approximately 1/36 of a township.

A township is a major subdivision of the public lands under the rectangular system of surveys. It is a tract of land contained within the boundaries of the north-south range lines. Most townships are 4-sided, measuring approximately 6 miles on each side and containing approximately 36 square miles, or 23,040 acres.

A tract is a parcel of land that lies in more than one section or that cannot be identified completely as a part of a particular section, e.g., Tract 37. Note: Tracts within a township are numbered beginning with 37 to avoid confusion with section numbers.

The band or reservation with which a Native American was associated, i.e. Osage Reserve, Hoopa Valley, Modoc, and Flathead.