>From "The Source, A Guidebook of American Genealogy", Edited by Loretto Szucs and Sandra Luebking, copyright 1997, Ancestry, Inc. The granting of military bounty land in the United States to encourage enlistments or reward previous service began in colonial times, but its legislative heyday was from 1788 to 1855, though claims were still being received by the federal government in the 1960's. Revolutionary War Warrants, 9 July 1788, 16 Mar 1803, 15 Apr 1806 War of 1812 Warrants, Illinois, Arkansas and Missouri Mexican War Bounty-Land warrants 11 Feb 1847 The Acts of 1850 - 1855 Nebraska: Of the 13 General Land Office (GLO) land districts, the earliest opened in Omaha in 1855, the last closed at Alliance in 1933. The records of these offices are in the state archive in the Nebraska State Historical Society, which has microfilmed all the tract books in 53 rolls, and indexed some. Obtain patents from the BLM Wyoming State Office, PO Box 1828, 2515 Warren Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82003, which has copies of the tract books and township plats for Nebraska. The National Archives in Washington, DC has the land-entry case files as described in Inventory 22 and the GLO headquarters original tract books and township plats. The land grant to the Union Pacific Railroad totaled a tenth of Nebraska, but its land office records were mostly destroyed in a fire. See Barry B. Combs, "The Union Pacific Railroad and the Early Settlement of Nebraska, 1868 - 1880, "Nebraska History 50 (1969): 1-26, Addison Erwin Sheldon, "Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska, publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society 22 (1936), pages 302-315; and Homer Socolofsky, Land Disposal in Nebraska, 1854-1906. >From "The Researchers Guide to American Genealogy", Val Greenwood, Genealogical Publishing, copyright 1990: The Act of 1847 provided for soldiers who served for at least one year in the Mexican War. The Act of 1850 extended this bounty to all War of 1812 veterans and Indian wars veterans. The act of 1852 extended benefits to officers as well as enlisted men and made all benefits assignable. The Act of 1855, amended in 1856, included every solder, or his heirs, who had served at least 14 days in any war since, and including the Revolution. The acts of 1847 and later were unique because they offered bounty as a reward to soldiers who had already served. All of these acts provided that a warrant for a quarter section (160 acres) of land, located on any part of the surveyed public domain, would be granted to those who qualified. No bounty land warrants were issued after passage of the Homestead Act in 1862. Veterans were instead given special consideration under various homestead acts. Additional information is available in Chapter 8 of Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives, published by the National Archive Trust Fund (NATF), revised 1985. Note: my previous statement about the Civil War being included was incorrect. The bounty land was up to just before the Civil War. Gary Martens mailto:garymartens@earthlink.net GRDB List Owner - AHSGR Database mailing list GER-Volga Co-list Owner - German Russian Volga mailing list AHSGR Village Coordinator for Schilling - Schilling Village Home Page - http://home.earthlink.net/~garymartens/schilling.html NEGenWeb Lincoln County Coordinator - http://www.rootsweb.com/~nelincol/