Hi everyone, The following is just to say don't be discouraged when you receive a lookup and your ancestor's name isn't there. Without seeing the book and its preface it is difficult to know just what the informatin covers. When using a reference it is helpful to know the "scope" of the reference. This is a librarian term for "what information does" the book/reference cover or contain. Early Ohio Settlers; Purchasers of Land in Southeastern Ohio, 1800-1840 is " A complete alphabetized listing of ORIGINAL purchaser of land sold by or from the Marietta Land Office, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, under the Land Act of 1800" Key to this is ORIGINAL which in this case means this is a list of people who purchased the property directly from the U. S. Government. Example: My Philip Witten ancestor purchased property that is now in Jackson Township in 1790; however he does not show up in this type of early owners list as he purchased the property from a "land spectulator" who was the orginial owner from the government. The land spectulator's name would appear. Also there were sales of this land prior to the Land Act of 1800. In the preface of Early Ohio Settlers, is list of spectulators--Archibald Woods and Nathan McFarland being two that purchased land that later became part of Monroe County. Also this book in its preface gives a discussion of the range, township, section method of describing land. Reading a preface is just as boring to librarians as to anyone else, but it tells you if the book will actually benefit you and cover what you are trying to find. Regards, Janet Conn