What I'll be sharing is courtesy of Kandi Adkinson whom I cited yesterday. I hope this will take some of the mystery and confusion away! Let's start with the highlights in Land Grant history: Under the King's Proclamation of 1763, the British government declared land would be awarded to veterans of the French & Indian War in lieu of cash. Land grants authorized by these military warrants can be found in the Virginia and Old Kentucky Land Grant Series. Names of soldiers receiving warrants for service in the French & Indian War are included in Philip Fall Taylor's publication entited "A Calendar of the Warrants for Land in Kentucky Granted for Service in the French & Indian War." This is published by the Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, (c) 1967 and is available in the KY Historical Society Library. After the Revolutionary War, Virginia continued and expanded the land grant system through its Land Law of 1779. Kentucky, in turn, reaffirmed the system after separation from Virginia when the Kentucky Act of 1796. The land grant system is still in use today as a method of appropriating Kentucky land. Structurally, the process has changed very little since its inception. Administrative duties have shifted, but since 1934 all original land records have been the responsibility of the Secretary of State's office. What's involved? What is a land patent? "Patenting" refers to the system of land appropriation used in Kentucky to transfer land from the Commonwealth to an individual or a group of individuals. All deeds trace back to an original patent recorded in the Kentucky Land Office. Land patenting consists of four steps, all of which must be completed before title is granted. [NOTE: Unlike deeds where one individual is selling land to another individual - this is land owned by the Commonwealth (State) and transferred to an individual or group of individuals. sg] Let's start looking at these steps - I'll cover step one today. Step #1: The Warrant (also called the Certificate or Order). This document authorizes a survey to be made. It does not specify the exact location of the land, although Revolutionary War Warrants were supposed to be used in the Military District located south of the Green River - there are some exceptions. Present-day County Court Orders (Warrants) are to be used within the county in which they were issued. A count of Virginia & Old Kentucky Patents, labeled "Military" by Kentucky Historical Society researchers, reveals that only 11% of all patents in both series were awarded for military service. The remainder were authorized by such warrants as settlement certificates, preemption claims, treasury, importation or village rights warrants; and special Acts of the General Assembly, such as "for relief of poor persons, "for surveying," and for seminary funding. It is imperative that the researcher study the type of warrant authorizing the patent in order to understand why the patent was issued. It should also be added that warrants could be traded, sold, or reassigned, in whole or part, anytime during the patenting process. We strongly advise researchers to examine both sides of warrants when studying the patenting process because assignments are recorded "on the back." Next week - Step #2 - The Entry. Sandi Colonel Sandi Gorin President, South Central KY Historical & Genealogical Society Sandi's website: http://www.gensoup.org/gorin/index.html Sandi's puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com