Hi, I recently wrote the following note: For an excellent description of how land was distributed in the United States,  check out the article History & Use of Land Records by Linda Haas Davenport. She gives an excellent description of how our ancestors staked their claims. You can view the entire article online at: http://www.obcgs.com/searchland-rec.htm Hope this helps!              Diane S. ================================================ I subsequently received a nice note from Linda Haas saying she was unaware that anyone had posted one of her essays on a website. She is contacting the website and requesting that they remove it. She asked me to let the Knox County listers know that they are all welcome to view the same information and more at her website: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~haas/learningcenter.html She has many helpful articles regarding genealogy research. Enjoy! Diane S.