The NATIONAL ARCHIVES of the United States (NARA) holds documents on the Homestead Act. There were at least 2 million claims on land through the Homestead Act in the many years it existed. You may want to read this article from the NATIONAL PARK SERVICE.
NPS - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNITED STATES
The United States General Land Office was the holder of the paper documents and these documents were on paper.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES records of the BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT Register with the National Archives so you can communicate with archivists there.
While we can easily imagine homesteaders in North Dakota, Missouri, or Arizona, let's look at that list... People homesteaded in cities like San Francisco and Chicago too.
Using their location or address on what is a farmstead or acreage, from a census after 1862, we can send an e-mail for more information about these Federal records.
If you're wondering if these paper records are being digitalized, the answer is YES. It's a huge project taken on by NATIONAL PARK SERVICE - HOMESTEAD RECORDS DIGITALIZATION PROJECT (Nebraska records are competed.)
WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM THESE RECORDS?
Excerpt: Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Wyoming, and Utah are searchable up to 1908 at Homestead National Historical Park at no charge. (some pay-for genealogy databases are charging for these as part of special collections.)
HOMESTEAD CASE FILES ARE TREASURE TROVES OF HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL INFORMATION. WITHIN THEM CAN OFTEN BE FOUND INFORMATION ABOUT A HOMESTEADER'S DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH, THE NAMES OF CHILDREN THAT LIVED ON THE HOMESTEAD, NATURALIZATION INFORMATION ABOUT IMMIGRANT HOMESTEADERS, NOTATIONS REGARDING MILITARY SERVICE... THE TYPES OF CROPS PLANTED...HOMES AND OTHER BUILDINGS - AND more!
Very exciting!
This post is part of a series. To pull up the series, click on the tag Help - Homestead Act - AWG
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