I am copying this information to the Logan list so I don't have to repeat myself. In the book "Land & Property Research in the United States" by E. Wade Hone, there are maps of land office boundaries. I won't bore you with the early years since I don't believe they apply here. Beginning Nov 6, 1823, what is now Logan was in the Springfield land office. You will need to know the name of the land office if you want to order certain information. After 1855-56 the entire state was in the Springfield land office until that merged with the GLO in 1876. The GLO became the Bureau of Land Management. I have discovered that the old township plats for Illinois are in the National Archives, have been microfilmed and should be available through FHC and state archives, also the state BLM office. It lists the state archives, state library and the Newberry Library in Chicago, along with the National Archives branch in Chicago as locations to find these. Illinois does not have a BLM office. This is a massive book, more than 500 oversized pages. Here's a paragraph that might be applicable to the Birks/Burks situation: "Remember that the date of patent is not the date of application. An ancestor may have been in a location several years earlier than originally thougt. Search both documents." I read this to mean that the BLM record is the date of the patent. He may have applied and died before the patent was actually issued [which seems to be the case]. I hope this helps. Cheryl Rothwell clrothwell@mindspring.com