GLO BLM Website

https://sdms.ak.blm.gov/scanned_images/surveyindex.html

maybe helpful, maybe not.

Thanks, that works great for Alaska, I'm looking for records in the lower 48. Maybe I'll have to try a state specific site. When I go to the new BLM site it all directs me to a map similar to the NGS site, but nothing will happen when I click on an area. 

I will use this thread instead of starting a new one because I think the OP might have been referring to the new BLM site launched earlier this week. https://glorecords.blm.gov

Has anyone used it? I don't know how to get the map search to work ☹️ 

Don't ask me how.  Somehow I got to an exchange deed in 1985 in Section 4, Township 3 East, Range 20N, Willamette Meridian.  I thought I was going to the same section and township in a different range and a very different meridian.

Humm, I just tried the GLO link from the " Nevada Land Records" site and it did not work. Perhaps the site is temporarily down?

@cv 

I think I might have heard something from someone who thought they might have heard something on one or two TV networks last evening that maybe (just a rumor) some people in a really big country somewhere in eastern Asia might have been hacking into some kind of government records at sometime in the quasi-recent past.   Just sayin'.....................

Posted by: @burkc

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Has anyone used it? I don't know how to get the map search to work ☹️ 

Just tried it and this worked for me -

• Zoom to the area you are interested in.
• Select the information icon (to the bottom right of the "Find address or place" at the top right of the map.
• Click the section you are interested in.
• A window should open in the lower left corner that has links to patents and surveys

@jon-payne 

You the man, that worked perfectly!!!! You can lead a horse to water...........

Hopefully, some missing info will show up now and I won't have to pester the local office. 

Finally figured it out but won't remember how by tomorrow.  I had to insert a name before I could do a real search so not convinced I could go to the location only to search and find out what names are involved.

@holy-cow

"My source? It's incredible. Absolutely incredible. People are saying it's the greatest source they've ever seen—many people, very smart people. Honestly, the other sources? Total disasters. Terrible. Awful. Complete messes. They don't even come close. Not even a little bit.

Mine has the best information. The strongest information. Beautiful information. Everyone knows it. Everyone's talking about it. They look at the other sources and they say, 'What happened here?' Sad. Very sad.

If you're looking for the best source, you've already found it. It's winning by a mile. Frankly, it's not even a competition."

😉

@cv 

Psst. Simmer down now.  ROTFLMAO

Psst. Need some help getting off the floor and back into my hospital bed.

Psst. Watched a comic the other day explaining that the infamous "Karen" has a sister, Linda.  He thought that was news.  I could have told him that 56 years ago.  Had to send that to my ex-wife, Karen, so she could forward it to her sister, Linda.

Very cool. I'm looking forward to investigating a farm my brother-in-law has in southern Missouri. 

I'm gonna have to learn some public land stuff now! 🙂 

@gary_g 

The PLSS was nearly new when that system was introduced to what would eventually be the State of Missouri.  The Special Instructions to the original surveyors were considerably different from the current Manual.  The original work in Missouri used the 5th Principal Meridian with its Initial Point being way down in the Arkansas Swamps. The early settlement was near the Mississippi River while Spain, and then France claiming the territory so there were Spanish and French land grants ahead of the PLSS quilt stretching its fabric around those pre-emptive obstacles.  The Ozarks cover most of southern Missouri and the Burt's Solar Compass wasn't available, so don't expect any curves.

Here is more than you may ever want to know about the General Land Office (GLO) and its application in Missouri.  You can print your own 142-page book for bathroom and travel reading.  Actually, this should be a value to almost anyone working in PLSSia.

https://www.missourisurveyor.org/pdfs/SpringWorkshop2011SpeakerFiles.pdf

Posted by: @jon-payne

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Posted by: @burkc

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Has anyone used it? I don't know how to get the map search to work ☹️ 

 

Just tried it and this worked for me -

• Zoom to the area you are interested in.
• Select the information icon (to the bottom right of the "Find address or place" at the top right of the map.
• Click the section you are interested in.
• A window should open in the lower left corner that has links to patents and surveys

That worked. How in the *^#* did you figure that out? I did not see that anywhere in the instructions or the video

Tried this out for an area in Illinois in the county east of St. Louis where one line of my ancestors moved to in the early 1800's from southwestern Kentucky.  Several years ago I had traveled there to dig through the deed records near a small town that was their address.  That took forever.  This portal worked great.  Found patents for quite a few 40's and 80's for my great-great-great grandfather and families connected by marriage.  The Third Principal Meridian was used.

One thing is certain.  They were surrounded by German families.  Some caught my attention.  Graddendick, which when it scrolled by, I thought the d was a b.  Then there was the infamous F word with an e added to the end.  Also, the F word plus an a inserted after the f.

The poor recorders of the patents had to have amazing spelling assumptions.  One fellow's first name was Klousz.  I was reminded of a Western I watched a few days ago.  The operator of the land office was creating a deed for a fellow who was illiterate.  "What's your first name?  Snedley.  How do you spell that? Uh, well, uh.  Nevermind. I'll spell it the way it sounds.  Wait until you try to spell Bogue."

I like the new site, but alas, the info I'm needing is not on the new site. I'll have to try and bug the field office for it. 

Maybe I am too stoopid to use the new site, please explain what I am doing wrong.

I am trying to see if any patents were issued to a person named David Powell in Park County, Wyoming.

After clicking on "Advanced Search", the first page that opens lets me select only Patents and then asks me to select the state and county, which I do.  Then it says under name to enter any parts of the name, so I enter David Powell, without quotes or anything.

That comes up with more than 2,000 hits, which is nonsense!  It comes back with things with "David", regardless of last name or first name.  There is a city named Powell in the county and it comes back with things related to town lots in that town.  It also returns items from counties other than Park.

Then I did the same thing, except put in "David Powell" in quotes, in some search systems that narrows hits to the phrase in quotes.  That only produced the spinning circle for a full five minutes before I gave up.

The old site looked a bit dated, but I could do the above easily and it worked well.

GB

@glenn-borkenhagen 

Try something like "David + Powell" without the quotes. That should find only entries with both David and Powell. It may take some time, as with your "David Powell" search, but it should narrow it down. 

Just looking at logical search parameters. I'm not sure the + will work everywhere, you may have to look at the help files for that particular site,which I don't use so I really can't.

@bobwesterman 

Thanks for the suggestion, but no luck.

Tried "David+Powell" without quotes and got the same 2,059 hits.

Tried "David +Powell", again without quotes and the spinning circle appears again and does not produce anything.

Also, when entering the state, I enter "W" for the first letter in Wyoming.  Iowa and Hawaii also appear in addition to states whose first letter is "W", presumably because they contain the letter "w" in their names.  I have never seen this behavior elsewhere.

Then when entering the county, several options in the dropdown are names of counties that do not exist in Wyoming.  I recall seeing Adams and Arapahoe, both of which are names of counties in Colorado.  And after entering "P", the first letter in Park, the selection set also includes counties the names of which contain "p" someplace other than the first letter.

I spent six minutes watching the video on how to use this "new and improved" site, but it does not mention names.  The sample searches I saw on that video also had a huge number of hits as well.  The video is on YouTube, and after I watched it I checked the comments.  Every one of the commenters seems to have encountered the same shortcomings I have found!  So, mayhaps it is not me??

One YouTube commenter made the point - "every record takes up a half page instead of single line" which is another issue, one has to continually scroll down to find nothing.

I did report this to the "Feedback" system at blm.gov.

GB