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Search the Land Records from All States or View Property Reports Now!
Iowa was a public-domain state with one principal meridian which had been established in Arkansas in 1815. Original land disposition was made by the federal government and its agents. There were nine land districts in Iowa, the first two at Burlington and Dubuque in 1838.
However, over 20,000 settlers were in Iowa prior to the first land sales and thus had no legal title to their claims. To prevent speculators and latecomers from buying such improved lands at land office auctions, the settlers and speculators formed claims clubs to rig the auctions on grounds of first settlement.
Patents, tract books, and township plats are available at the Bureau of Land Management Eastern States Office (see Introduction). Holdings for Iowa land records at the National Archives/Central Plains Region (see Introduction) include abstracts of military warrants. More federal military bounty land warrants were used in Iowa than any other state. It is estimated that half of Iowa was purchased with these authorizations. Locations on warrants for some or all acts of 1842–55 are for the district offices of Chariton, Kanesville, Council Bluffs, Decorah, Osage, Des Moines, Fort Des Moines, Dubuque, Marion, Burlington, Fairfield, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, and Sioux City. Other records of the register and receiver are held for these same counties. Records of homesteads including certificates, receipts, and entries, are held for Des Moines, Fort Dodge, and Sioux City.
Following the federal disbursement of land in Iowa, land purchases and sales were handled by the recorder of the respective county government, beginning with the establishment of that particular county.
Acquisitions of the Iowa State Archives that should be of great interest to the genealogist include land office copies of plats based on original land surveys (in color), ca. 1835–60. These twelve volumes, transferred from the secretary of state's vault, totally cover the state and include notes on Indian villages and trails, old roads, and pioneer dwellings. The “Auditor of State Abstracts of Original Land Entries,” 1847–59, has been microfilmed and is available to researchers. The cooperative microfilming project of the Genealogical Society of Utah and the State Historical Society of Iowa have provided the preservation of land conveyances for almost every county. The records are available at the State Historical Society of Iowa's Des Moines research library. There are numerous tract books, receipt books, series of county plat books, etc., available for genealogical research in Iowa. Other references include:
Bogue, Allan G. “The Iowa Claims Clubs: Symbols and Substance.” Mississippi Valley Historical Revue 45 (1958): 231–35.
Lokken, Roscoe L. Iowa Public Land Disposal. Iowa City, Iowa: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1942.
Shambaugh, Benjamin F., ed. Constitution and Records of the Claim Association of Johnson County, Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 1894.
Snedden, Howard E. “Auditor's Transfer Books: A Valuable Iowa Land Research Tool,” Hawkeye Heritage 24 (Autumn 1989): 141–45. The Transfer Books, created in 1866, are sources of property transfers, arranged by land description instead of by grantor or grantee. The entries include the names of the parties involved, the transaction dates, and reference either deed books or plat books (varies with county). The Transfer Books are currently being microfilmed as well.
Swierenga, Robert P. Pioneers and Profits: Land Speculation on the Iowa Frontier. Ames, Iowa: Iowa University Press, 1968.
Following the federal disposal of land in Iowa, land purchases and sales were handled by the recorder of the respective county government, beginning with the establishment of that particular county.
Find Iowa Land Record Books at Amazon.com
For further information, consult Sidney Thiel, comp., The Oklahoma Land Rush. (Washington, D.C.: Historical Records Commission, n.d.); and E. Wade Hone, Land & Property Research in the United States (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997).
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Excerpts From the Book "Family History Made Easy"
Prior to the Civil War, more than eighty-five percent of all Americans owned or leased land. Therefore, almost every researcher, whether a seasoned professional or weekend hobbyist, has required land records to document the existence, association, or movement of an individual or ancestral family. While many researchers may feel a sense of historical excitement when finding an ancestor in a land deed, many also fail to understand the importance of such a document and how land can be used to make vital links between generations; they are not aware that it can bridge distant origins and help solve even the most difficult problems. E. Wade Hone,
In Land and Property Research in the United States
U.S. House of Representative Private Claims, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 or Vol. 3
The right to own land has always been one of the great incentives for living in the United States. Yet researchers often overlook the importance of land records as a source of family history information. Written evidence of people’s entitlement goes back in time further than virtually any other type of record family historians might use.
Land records meet the needs of researchers in different ways and contain a variety of genealogical and historical data. They are a major source of information for many family histories and provide primary source material for local history as well. They are closely related to probate and other official court records and should be investigated in connection with them. Land and property are leading issues in the settlement of estates, and the majority of civil cases in the courts deal with real and personal property. Although land records rarely yield vital statistics, in many instances they provide the only proof of family relationships. Often they include the names of heirs of an estate (including daughters’ married names and a widow’s subsequent married name) and refer to related probates and other court cases by number and court name. In some places where other records are scarce, the land records take on extra importance. Occasionally these documents disclose former residences and more often provide the new address of the grantors or heirs at the time of the sale of the property.
Land records provide two types of important evidence for the family historian. First, they often document family relationships. Second, they place individuals in a specific time and place, allowing the researcher to sort people and families into neighborhoods and closely related groups. One of land records’ most important qualities is that they are sometimes the only records that allow us to distinguish one person of a common name from another.
The National Archives has bounty-land warrant files, donation land entry files, homestead application files, and private land claim files relating to the entry of individual settlers on land in the public land states. There are no land records for the original thirteen states or for Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Hawaii. Records for these states are maintained by state officials, usually in the state capital. Searching for the record of a particular land grant from the federal government requires contacting both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Archives (NARA).
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