Katherine, You need a bit more information, most importantly you need a range (R) and a principle meridian (PM). Township 24N could be in either Carroll or Ogle counties if measured from the 4th Principal Meridian, for example. Carroll county would include land between Ranges 2E and 7E, whild Ogle county would include land between Ranges 7E and 11E. Illinois actually has land described by three Principal Meridians, so you really do need to get the Range and PM description. One book I've found extremely helpful in trying to make sense out of property descriptions is Wade Hone's "Land & Property Research in the United States." For a more general introduction to using land records for doing genealogical research you might also want to check out: http://users.arn.net/~billco/uslpr.htm This is "a self-paced set of lessons on the basics of land and property research in the United States" from the INTERNATIONAL INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY UNIVERSITY. I'm just starting to use land records for doing research, and it drives me crazy trying to understand what's going on, but I've also been able to establish a link between two individuals that I didn't have before, so it's worth the frustration. Good luck, Gayel >Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 07:45:47 -0600 >From: Katherine Branham <kbranham@ctos.com> >To: ILMADISO-L@rootsweb.com >Message-ID: <379DB80A.1AB9D142@ctos.com> >Subject: Re: Illinois Public Land Purchase Records >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >Good Morning, > >While searching online I came across a township listed as "24N" in the >"Illinois Public Land Purchase Records." > >Does anyone know what 24N stands for? > >Thanks for any assistance, k Gayel Knott Rootsweb Sponsor gknott@istar