Diane, Thanks to you and another lister for pointing me to the American State Papers, which I found online on the Library of Congress site. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsp.html --r At 12:01 PM -0500 10/2/05, Diane Walsh wrote: >According to 'Land Transactions in Illinois Prior to the Sale of >Public Domain' by Raymond H. Hammes, in __Journal of the Illinois >State Historical Society,__ LXXVII: 2, Summer 1984, p. 112-113: > >Claims rejected appear in American State Papers: Public Lands II. >The first report of the Commissioners was submitted 31 Dec 1809. >Approved claims are listed separately from Rejected Claims *with >reason given*. This would include your period of interest. Congress >accepted and confirmed these findings on 1 May 1810. > >A couple years later a second Board of Commissioners was established >to review/approve/reject confirmations of claims made by Govs. St. >Clair and Harrison --submitted to Congress 1813 and confirmed 1 Apr >1814 (also appears in ASP-PL) > >Hammes goes on to say 50% of all claims were rejected, commonly due >to fraud, forgery, perjury, but also by testimony of witnesses when >the claim was known to be false (p. 113). > >Anyone whose settlers had a land interest in Illinois during the >territorial period and earlier, will find the above cited article >summarizes the land issues quite nicely. The Belleville Public >Library (http://www.compu-type.net/rengen/stclair/BPL.htm or their >own new web site at: www.bellevillepubliclibrary.org ) has this >article; as does the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in >Springfield (http://www.alplm.org/library/published_materials.html >- 112 North Sixth Street, Springfield, IL 62701-1507.) > >Diane W. > >----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Perrault" <perrault@AI.SRI.COM> >To: <ILSTCLAI-L@rootsweb.com> >Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 8:21 PM >Subject: [ILSTCLAI] Illinois land claims > >>I've seen many mentions of how much fraud there was in the >>allocation of land claims in Illinois, of particular interest to me >>in the period of about 1785 to 1805. There are many lists of >>grants allowed, but is there a way to find information about claims >>that were denied, particularly with reasons, which would give some >>indication of the amount and perpetrators of the fraud?