Hi all, If you have never used the Bureau of Land Management web site, you're missing a great source of copies of land patent documents. To use this resource, go to the website below. You have three ways to search -Basic/ Standard/ Accession #. Basic lets you select a State and either just a Last Name or Last and First name. The Standard lets you set additional criteria such as just one County. Accession # only works if already know the specific document number you want. Pick your search method and hit enter and the system produces a list. Click on a name and you can get the legal description, or a copy of the actual document image (Large .gif, Small .gif, or PDF file) To get the copy on your computer, just point the cursor to the image on your screen, right-click your mouse, select "Save Picture As" and tell your computer where to save the image. As an example, I entered the name RITTER, which has appeared on the list recently and got 16 patent records on the screen. In 15 minutes I obtained 20 land records for my Monroe County EASTER and GORDON ancestors and it cost me nothing. My apologies if I'm preaching to the choir but I think this capability is a God-send. ;-) The site is: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/ Wayne E. Easter Researching Easter, Gordon, Ballard, and Related Families Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi http://www.easterfamily.net <http://www.easterfamily.net/>