Land and School Searches

Land Searches

Another important part of the process of learning about ancestors is tapping into the wealth of information available to you through land searches. 

People have always owned property.  A piece of land was an incredibly important part of life.  Even well before people established the United States; land was a mark of nobility, of power and of self accomplishment.  In many ways, the American Dream of owning a house and land was established years before in many other countries around the world.  It just came to be more readily in the United States.

Therefore, land records are some of the very best tools that you have available to you to help uncover your genealogical line.  Here are some of the records you need to take into consideration:

• Land records from countries, cities and even national records.  These show who owned the property, according to official reports and documents.  They can be tracked through your auditor's office or other land record office locally. 

• Deeds.  Deeds are often filed as public records and kept indefinitely. 

• Voter registration can also be helpful.  These can be found through the same government offices.  

• Probate records.  When a person dies, their estate often goes through probate, which is how the property is then passed down or confiscated through other means.  These records are also public records available through local government offices. 

• Wills, which are filed publicly in most cases, can also show how people related, where property and other possessions went after someone died.  It can help to connect the dots. 

• Tax records.  Who doesn't pay tax?  Tax records can be helpful to your family search because of the information they provide including property ownership and property location. 

School Records

School records can also play a role in the establishment of family trees.  In some cases, records have been kept by schools for hundreds of years, which means that if you know which schools your family members attended, you can learn more about them.

If you don't know which schools were used, you can still use the records of local schools to get an idea.

• School records can be searched. 

• Alumni records can also be found and searched for information.  These can often tell you where people went after they graduated from the school as well. 

• Yearbooks and other school photos can be used to help track people. 

If you are unsure where family members when to school, your search should take you into the direction of schools in the area in which you know they lived.  Don't forget about colleges, because some families did have the ability to send their children to colleges, even though children may not have graduated from there.

Next, we will review Other Records To Search.