all the land records are at TSLA, you just have to know which microfilm group to look at, I would say talk to them for help. Smith Co TN land records begin with Deed Book Vol B 1801 - 1807, as I understand it, book A is lost. I may be wrong on that, if it is still availabe, it would be for before 1801. But.......and this is a little known thing, around 1802 or so some of the Smith Co land records were registered in Jackson Co land records. My Turney does not appear in SMith Co land records until about 1804, but I found him in 1802 in Jackson Co land records at TSLA record group 50 reel 5.....a large section of Smith was under Jackson County for about a year or so....it might also be because Henry Turney was living in Hawkins Co at the time but buying land in Smith which he later moved to. So maybe it was easier to register at Jackson Co court house? If you are going back before that - you will have to look at records of like Land South of the Ohio River, that kind of thing...... there are TN land grants to look at. Also NC land grants in what is now Tennessee. Pre-emptors records, Armstrong's entry book is the first land surveyed by NC in what became TN.....and so on. As you say, the early land records of Davidson, and then Sumner county are good places to look, but you need to expand out from there. Court records also sometimes contain land records.....also wills, estate records, anything you can get your hands on might have land records. I found where my Turney assigned away half of his land given for defense of Ft Nashborough - and it was not in land records but in Davidson Co Will book 1 and says Henry Turney of Cumberland, Settlement of North Carolina assigned half of his 640 acre granted for defense of settlement to .... of Lincoln Co Virginia dated 2 Sept 1782. LIncoln Co VA would later be Kentucky by the way. I have never found this land in land records, just this mention in the will book. Apparently later this man died and his family must have been proving ownersh ip of the land and how they got it. I also found mention of a piece of land which is today in Sumner Co - near Mansker's Station area.....and it was an article from TN Gazette of 1801 found in Wilson Co Tn records and mentioned some of Henry Turney's land would be sold for non payment of taxes.....apparently he must have paid the tax ( he was living in Hawkins, by 1803 or so he was in SMith), because later that summer of 1801 he sold the land - that record I found. But this was really only because later people built a mansion there which is still there today, and historians did a search of the ownership of the land back to the original owner who was Henry Turney. Withouth that, I would have missed a lot of it cause it is found all over the place. REalize these men were often land speuclators. They might have been living in what at the time was Sullivan Co - eastern TN - but getting their name on land somewhere else. A bit later, they had not moved, but might be in Hawkins Co ......so they would perhaps again register this land this time in Hawkins Co reocrds.....but the land could well be....in middle TN someplace. The land would not be mentioned again perhaps for years, until it was sold. Or if it was passed on to children, it would be in will or court records, but not show up in land records until the children or even grandchildren sold it out of the family - this could be 30 years later. So you can see the problem. Did I make any sense? What I do is read index for everything from will index, land records, court records, for any TN county I can get my hands on for time of 1774 (when it was not yet TN) to say 1820 or so. I will tell you of one example of what strange places you will find info......Peter Turney Jr and his brother Henry were on line of what became TN and VA around early 1774......they had moved from Shenandoah Co VA stopping off for about a year of so at New River. They had left back in Sheandoah Co VA their father and two younger brothers. Peter Jr was a surveyor, and both he and brother Henry did a lot of land speculating with land in various places such as near Bean's Station, Holston and Clinch River, near Cumberland gap, etc. 1780 Peter Jr was with bunch to go to King's Mountain in Oct, while early summer of 1780 brother Henry was at Ft Nashborough. They both end up in area of Dixon Springs in 1780s (Henry built a house in what is now Trousdale Co but near Dixon Springs where Peter Jr built his house). By 1790 Henry is back on his land in Hawkins (they had land in Jackson and later some fell in Overton Co)....1802 Henry begins to buy land near present day Dekalb / Cannon Co line and moved there 1803 or 1804 and died there in 1843. Okay, they were all over the place and lots of land records for them. Jump back to about 1787 - Peter Jr and Henry are in Davidson / Sumner co area of the time. Brothers are in Shenandoah Co VA. I found a record where Peter Jr gave his brother Michael in VA power of attorney to sell some land .....now this land was in Davidson Co of today's TN, but the record of the sell is in Shenandoah Co VA because the man who bought the property was living there. Apparently he wanted to move to near Nashville and so bought his land before he left VA - I have yet to find any of this transaction in TN records, but it is there in VA. Perhaps Peter Jr had gone back home to VA for a while, or more likely this man in VA knew Peter's brother who was a neighbor and asked about land in TN. Michael somehow got word from VA to Peter in TN and asked if he had any land to sell. Since Peter had lots of land, he somehow sent back this power of attorney to his brother to sell his VA neighbor some of the land near Nashville. Then the man moved to TN (I assume) and at some point would have registered his claim to this land saying Peter had sold it to him thru Michael Turney back in VA. I am still looking for the info in TN, but did find that the man moved to near Nashville. Boggles the mind. Mary ----- Original Message ----- From: <ELI6223@aol.com> To: <TNSMITH-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 10:34 PM Subject: [TNSMITH] Re: TNSMITH-D Digest V05 #268 > So............ If I think that my John Luckey's( b. 1790-1794 in NC, but in > Smith Co by 1813) per enlistment at Carthage in War of 1812 , family was in > Smith Co in the late 1700's, but it was not under the state of TN., WHERE do I > look for land records? We have been looking for years, they are not in the > Smith Co records. They were there in 1820, 30, 40, and we feel probably > earlier. Research from another family researcher, that I believe originated from > Carmack Key, who is related to a collateral line says that they settled first near > Monoville, and then he was the Sheriff of Brush Creek. I have looked in > Davidson and Sumner. Do I look in Montgomery, Robertson, where are the "southwest > territories" records, someone on another list even suggested Washington Co. > TN, or NC. HELP!! I believe his family came from Lincoln Co NC most likely. > Thanks! > Teri > > > ==== TNSMITH Mailing List ==== > Visit Photos Of Cemeteries Of Smith County > Over 500 + Cemeteries online with pictures and Descriptions > http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnsmith/tngen/cempics.htm > > >