Hello to Connie Balazic! Connie and I have been exchanging information for well over 10 years and I cannot say that we've made much progress regarding her ancestors, Neal and Lucy (Harris) Fulton of Saline County, Missouri. I was pleased to see Connie's note posted to the List this week. I've been having great luck with my own Fulton genealogy by using the online database of the Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, General Land Office. I took a moment today to look up Neal Fulton and found that: He received title to 40 acres in Section 9, Township 52 North, Range 20 West, on 1 October 1840. (Document Nr. 11819). This tract was bounded on the west and south by John B. Ish, on the southeast by Jonathan Ferrill, and on the east by John Fall. All entries were made in 1840 and 1841. Directly north of Neale's land was an entry for Timothy Harris. Henry R. Moore and William B. Hill owned land surrounding Timothy Harris and Moses Harris owned 40 acres north of Henry R. Moore. Question for Connie: Who was Timothy Harris? Who was Moses Harris? Lesson learned in Salt Lake: if you get stumped with the Fultons, follow the other families. * * * If you've used the GLO records before, ignore the following. If this is a new source to you, read on. The General Land Office (GLO) handled the sale of public land in the new territories and states. Today, the records of the eastern states are available online. (Patience. The western states are coming soon - February 2000!) http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ Try it out. Go to the site, type your zipcode then press Enter to log in. Select Missouri, then in the Patent Description box type FULTON in the Patentee Last Name box and select Saline from the drop down list of counties. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Genealogical Search Results. Wait. The searchable database reveals that Neale Fulton acquired 40 acres through the GLO on 1 October 1840. There's more. Scroll to the bottom of the Land Patent Report page and click on View the document and you can actually read the original record. Note that they spelled his name "Neale." So, Neal Fulton obtained 40 acres in Section 9, Township 52 North, Range 20 West. Use the Back button to return to the search page (where you found the Patent Description boxes, etc.) Scroll to the bottom and click on RESET. (This clears your entries.) Now, type the land information (Section 9, Township 52, North, Range 20, West) in the Legal Land Description box (near the bottom of the page), then click on Genealogical Results. You will get a list of everyone else who acquired land in Section 9. (John B. Ish, John Fall, and Jonathan Ferrill. Do you recognize any of these names Connie?) Go Back to the search page and change the Section Number to Section 4 (leave Township 52 North, Range 20 West). Click on Title Search Results this time and you will see a list of all entries in the Section directly north of Neale Fulton. Look at the entry for the SESW (southeast quarter of the southwest quarter) and you'll see that Timothy Harris acquired the tract due north of Neale and Lucy (Harris) Fulton. Click on SWNE and see the entry for Moses Harris. If you're new to Township/Range deeds, it's very simple. Everything is square. A township is six miles by six miles. Each square mile is a section; there are 36 sections in a township. The numbering is tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it's simple. Section 1 is the top right square. The first two rows look like this: 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 ... If my numbers line up correctly on your computer, you can see that Section 9 is directly below Section 4. Neale Fulton owned 40 acres in Section 9 bordering Section 4. Timothy Harris owned 40 acres in Section 4 directly north and adjacent to Neale. Moses Harris owned 40 acres further north in Section 4, he had a southwest quarter of the northeast quarter (SWNE). The BLM site includes great descriptions of this whole Township/Range system complete with charts & diagrams. What does the entry date mean? That was the date the deed was signed in Washington D.C. Neale Fulton went to the General Land Office in Fayette, applied for the 40 acres, and waited for his deed. My ancestor, Senee Fulton, paid taxes on her Missouri land in 1846, but her GLO deed was not signed until August 1848 - two years later. Happy hunting everyone. Patrice (Fulton) Stark Lone Tree, Colorado