Betty - First, I'll suggest that you revisit that BLM site, and roam about a bit. I think you will find all the terms defined there. I'm sure you will, unless they have changed their site since I lost looked at it. I'll just make a few comments here. >> I did go to the BLM site and found several records for Jesse G., Presly and >> Samuel in what appears the correct vicinity and have reproduced one below. You do want to download the "patents" of interest from that site. Often, the Patent gives some useful data that is not inculded in the summaries they present. >>What is the April 23, 1820 treaty? That is something I suspect will be defined on the BLM site. The "treaty" or "Act" date has little or no meaning to you, it is simply the legal basis for granting the "land entries." Do note that these are "land entries" --- they are not "land grants" as some often assume. A person making a land entry had to pay a fee for the land, it was not simply given to them. >>Is Aliquot an Indian Tribe? No. Look up the word aliquot in your dictionary. It is just a technical term for a part of something --- in this case, a piece of land. >> What does the information I extracted from the listing from the BLM site mean? All "land entry" states, of which Alabama was one, were originally "federal" land. These states were all surveyed and laid out in a grid system. There was a baseline, usually several, and relative to those baselines, the grid was described in Ranges and Townships, then brokend own further in to Sections, and parts of Sections. A "Township" (one basic division determined by a particular Township and Range pair) was a square, six mile on a side. Each Township was divided in into 36 Sections, each one mile on a side (640 acres). From the AL State HWY department, you can pruchase modern maps that have on them the Township, Range, Section grids. Using those maps, and the land description form the Patents, you can plot exactly where the land is located that your ancestor entered. You can do exactly the same with the land descriptions from deeds. Once you have determined in which County that land "now" resides, you can then trace the lineage of that land. Often, you will find the land once resided in several other counties. But, you need to know that in order to know "where" records "should" have been made and recorded. Knowing precisely where a person's land was has a number of side benefits. For instance, if the person lived on that land, often they did not, it is an aid to locating where they may be buried, churches they attended, etc. >>Land Office: MARDISVILLE That is important to know. If you attempt to consult the land office records which are located at the AL Archives, it's a must. >>Total Acres: 39.95 This simply says that the entry was for 39.95 acres. This is a typical entry, most were for this size plot, though many folks made several entries. >> Issue Date: August 17, 1838 That just gives the date the Patent was issued. The original application made by the person making the entry may have been much earlier. >> No Entry Classification: Sale-Cash Entries Notice it is a "Cash" entry. When settlers first began making entries, it was under a "Credit" system. That was soon stopped, and I do not think any of the Patents on the BLM site or for Credit entries. They do have records of such entries, and they are worth obtaining if you ancestor made such an entry. >> Legal Land Description: >> # Aliquot Parts Block # Base Line Fractional Section Township Range Section # >> 1 SESW HUNTSVILLE No 18S 10E 18 The way to "read" that is as follows: Southeast 1/4, of southwest 1/4, of Section 18, Township 18 South, Range 10 East. I do not have a map for that area, so I cannot tell you where it is. The Summary data on the BLM site should tell you what county that land is currently in. If one is using the land record to determine when a person arrived in an area, or at least narrow the range of time in which they arrived, it is important to note who made the entry, and to whom the Patent was issued. Often, a person purcahsed the right to a Patent from someone who made the entry years before. Likewise, it often important to determine how and when a person disposed of land for which they obtained a Patient. To do that, you must go to the appropriate County deed books. That is really easy to do, usually, you need only look at the Grantor Deed Index to find the deed of interest. Good Luck, Harry Nelms