Last year when my new form for My Roots And Branches mini binder was land deeds, I began to realize how many researchers did not utilize land deeds. After getting to set in on Leslie Smith Collier's lecture yesterday, which was in part on land deeds, and hearing and seeing the responses, AGAIN I see how many are not using land deeds. Land deeds are not just finding the location of your ancestors land. And maybe many of you do not know how to locate the land. When you read (Example)Township 7 South; Range 27 West Section 30 .... this is telling you where in the county the land was located..so get you a county map (which by writing the chamber of commerce of the county you can get a county map either free or minimal cost) find the Twp and Range and the county map will also show you the sections (there are 36 sections in a township and range). Now from this point you will read in your land description SW 1/4 SE 1/4 ...this is read backward to get the location in the section so you will begin with SE 1/4. If you will go to http://www.genealogyshoppe.com/ld.html I give an example of this legal on my land deed chart in the #2 square (which is the back of my form). NOW for the main reason of this email...we all agree "most" of us do not have access to the 1890 census. And 1840 prior the census only tells us the head of the household. How many of us did our ancestors not leave a will...telling us who was all in their family or just put "and the remainder goes to my children"? I personally had quite a few and most all of my family were farmers. But by going thru land deeds..the property had to be sold or given to or by someone. You have no idea how many times I have found the listings of the wife..who I might have not known her name..the children..and their spouses name or their married names when the land was being disbursed. And if children had moved off..it many times tells where they located. Also watch who the witnesses are on a deed. Many times it is family members...or possibly even if not a family member..a very close friend who the family traveled with to the area in question. And it might be that family member or friend that leads you to where your ancestors came from to get to the county or give you more information abt your families life in general. Usually when the family sold off their shares of the land to move on they sold it to other family members. But follow the land deed for years to come...I have found when the family member that ended up with the property either died (and again being disbursed) or was getting ready to move on..there have been discrepancies in the deed and they had to have the prior heirs send the corrections on their behalf to the court and it usually told where these "heirs" were living at the time. So when you lose a family this may be the way you find their new location. I am a sucker for plat books...if you are lucky to get a county plat of your family...study it..the neighbors are very important to your search. They could be family that traveled with yours to the area or a family that married into yours. Again watch and find where the other families migrated from that lived near your family..people traveled together and this is a possible lead for you. A land deed can tell you a time frame to when your family left an area and reached their destination. Families needed a place to live and farmers needed a place to grow next years crops. So does it not stand to reason with you this was the last thing they did on leaving an area and the first upon arriving to an area? I could go on and on abt why you should use land deeds in your search but I hope this just intrigues you enough to enhance your research by using the land deeds. Good luck in your search! Kathy