FamilySearch Learning Center Course: "Sections, Ranges and Townships" by Roberta "Bobbi" King

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The current snapshot of the FamilySearch Learning Center home page.

As I'm doing a quick overview of my tree for the first time this year, I realize I have been neglecting some of my early Ohio ancestors.   For example, my Tomlinsons and Gaskills moved to the Columbus area sometime around 1803, but existing federal censuses only start in 1830 so I have had to use other records, like taxes and whatever court records I can find, to fill in that time gap.  As I have started to look at Ohio land records I realize that there is a lot I have failed to fully grasp about Ohio's development.  According to the FamilySearch article, "Ohio Land and Property," "the rectangular land survey system (section, township, and range), established by the Land Ordinance of 1785, was first applied to federal land grants in Ohio."

Conveniently, FamilySearch has a course (video and slides) called "Sections, Ranges, and Townships" that I will be viewing tonight that might help me get started in Ohio land records.  I hope to get some idea of how to proceed with issues that come up, like the following:

A snapshot taken from the subscription site HistoryGeo.com, which has a module that compiles Bureau of Land Management patents into a convenient visual format.  Notice that there are areas which weren't covered by BLM records. Naturally, I had Tomlinsons and Gaskills in the counties with either NO or partial BLM land records (notice the western parts of Franklin and Pickaway counties along the Scioto River are not covered, and Madison, Fayette, and Ross counties).  I am guessing that the land grant system in Ohio has a part to play in this.

It does appear the original land grant areas did have an impact on what was covered by BLM. "Map of major land grants, tracts, districts and cessions in the State of Ohio." on wikipedia courtesy of user:DiltsGD

As a (new) subscriber to Legacy Family Tree Webinars I also have access to their numerous Ohio-specific webinars, like Ohio: The Great Land Experiment, but you have to pay to play for those (I pay $9.95/month, which is quite reasonable).





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