The Illinois Public Domain Land database has been 'improved.' As a result of these 'improvements' you may be confused by the county. I always search by surname, no first name, and get the whole list in that county. I did my test search for Downing in Sangamon and got nothing. I then searched for Downing in Logan and got a list. The problem is, of the 13 land sales to Downing on the Logan list, eight are dated BEFORE there was a Logan County. So the land sale record is a Sangamon County record but now is listed in Logan. I think this will just cause confusion so I am letting everyone know. http://www.sos.state.il.us/depts/archives/data_lan.html You might want to double check those early records at the federal site: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov Cheryl Rothwell LoganCty@mindspring.com Central Illinois Regional Coordinator - ILGenWeb Project Logan County, ILGenWeb>http://www.rootsweb.com/~illogan/loindex.htm Logan County mailing list> ILLOGAN-L-request@rootsweb.com Downing mailing list> DOWNING-L-request@rootsweb.com Harding mailing list> HARDING-L-request@rootsweb.com Downing query board> http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Downing Lucas query board> http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Lucas