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Wisconsin Land RecordsThis information is now located at my business site: Genealoger.com. You will be redirected shortly. Thank you for your interest in my site. Duane Bogenschneider Wisconsin is a federal-land state. Wisconsin was divided into a grid of 1,554 townships by the General Land Office (GLO) survey crews. The earliest land office was at Mineral Point, opening on 10 November 1834. Land that is presently Grant County, with the exception of mineral land, was available at that time. The local records of the nine GLO district offices are at the Commissioner of Public Lands, P.O. Box 8943, Madison, Wisconsin 53708-8943 (127 West Washington Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53703). Many records of the Commissioner of Public Lands are in the State Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society. These include copies of original federal survey plat books, 1834-58, and various other records. The State Archives holds copies of all Wisconsin Local Land Office Tract Books, showing original owners or recipients of most land in Wisconsin. The Bureau of Land Management Eastern States Land Office in Springfield, Virginia, has patents, copies of tract books, and township plats < www.glorecords.blm.gov >. An online searchable index and downloadable images of Wisconsin land patents are also available. The National Archives holds the land-entry case files. See Alexander F. Pratt, "Reminiscences of Wisconsin," in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 1, Lyman Copeland Draper, ed. (reprint, Madison, Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1855), 137, regarding claims to associations near Milwaukee in the late 1830s. Subsequent land transactions after initial ownership are recorded in the county's register of deeds. Most counties have grantor/grantee indexes to their records. Some are available at the Area Research Centers of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Family History Library. The patentee was the first owner of property after the initial survey. Once the patent was issued, the land became private property and was then sold with a deed. The townships, the six-mile-square land blocks which were the original divisions of land from the federal land grants, were then divided into 36 one-mile squares. The township numbering was the north-south numbering, starting from the center line. The range numbering was the east-west numbering, starting from the center line. The section is the one-mile-square portion (approximately 640 acres) of a township. That was was also generally divided into 36 equal squares (each of which might be divided another 36 times). For additional information:
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