The Land
At the recent Los Floridanos meeting in St. Augustine,
someone was asking about how some family member got such large tracks of land.
There are several ways these pieces of land were obtained in Florida.
Land Grants,
- The Armed Occupation Act,
- Military Land Bounties, and
- Buying the land from the Government Land Office
- Second-hand Railroad land
Are the most common methods in Florida.
Most of the files on the Spanish Land Grants are available
through the Florida State Archives. The
physical copies remain in Tallahassee, but the State provides images of these
files online at: Florida Memory – Spanish Land Grants, www.floridamemory.com/collections/spanishlandgrants/.
Prior to the sale of Florida to the U.S.
government, the King of Spain gave land grants to many individuals. After Florida became part of the U.S.A., the U.S.
Supreme Court had to decide whether the land grants were valid which created a good paper-trail. The original land grants were in Spanish, but
for the court were translated. That is
why you will find both languages in the documents. Only some of the West Florida (the Panhandle)
land grants are missing. At the website
you will find images of each folder and it's contents that you can print or
save as a digital color jpg-file (if you right-click your mouse when the cursor
is over the image, you will find a selection of features.) Since the legal proceedings were lengthy, the
title of the land grant may have been passed to heirs or sold for cash.
An online tool for finding the other types of land acquisition
from the U.S. government is the Bureau of Land Management’s Government Land Office Records, www.glorecords.blm.gov
. Look over the information page, but click the words Search Documents next to
the house symbol on the green bar down from the top. You should be on the Search Page with the
defaults of “Search by Document Type” and “Patents” selected. You will need to select Florida for a location for your initial search leave the county
unselected. Next in the names area type
the last or surname (if more than one spelling is possible you will need to
repeat the search for each), for the initial search don’t enter first or middle
names. The click Search Patents on the
orange-brown line near the bottom of the page.
To see a record, click the leading image or accession number. If you need to shorten your list, add first
names or a current county. It is an informative
database for you to find land records and some history. DO NOT BUY CERTIFIED COPIES, you can print
and download images for free.
The State of Florida maintains a similar looking website
that you may find useful called the Land Document Search, 199.73.242.56 . It is free.
In the 1840s the U.S. government passed the Armed Occupation
Act of 1842. A Florida resident could
claim 160 acres of land by settling on land South of Newnansville and Palatka
and also away from other regular settlements and outposts, register with the
General Land Office (GLO), farm 5 at least of the acres, built a house. This put the settler on the Indian Frontier
and he needed to be prepared for conflict.
Military Land Bounties were granted to the soldiers after
wars. The size of the bounty was
sometimes determined by the soldier’s rank.
And sometimes the bounty could be transferred to an heir. In Florida the veteran could apply for a
military warrant that could be applied to acquiring a government owned land. The veteran had the option of selling the
warrant. Typical military warrants in
Florida were for the Seminole Wars and Mexican War.
Buying land from the government is the largest category whether
it is homestead land (cheap with strings) or outright (more expensive without
as many strings) some land is dry and some still submerged. And there are second-hand land deals. The railroads were often given large tracks
of land adjoining the railway, these were many times sold (the Florida Land Document
Search catches many of these transactions.)
This posting is already too long. I will write another discussing Townships,
Ranges, and Section soon.
Please comment, if I explained poorly or got it wrong. Or if you have more tips for us.
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