Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales

• Search the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database by Name of Purchaser.
• Search the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database by Legal Description.
• Abbreviations used in the Illinois Public Domain Land Sales Database.
• How to obtain copies of original Illinois land records.
• How to obtain additional information on land sales.
• How to determine the location of public domain lands.
• Federal Township Plats of Illinois

The database contains information about nearly 550,000 land sales from the 54,740 square miles of the public domain sold within Illinois. Each purchase entry includes the purchaser's name, purchase date, number of acres, price per acre, numeric code indicating the county in which the land is located, legal description (township, section, range), volume and page numbers of original entry, and variously, the sale type, and the purchaser's sex and residence.
 

As a result of limitations on research time, Archives staff can photocopy no more than 2 entries per request. Researchers should know, however, that the registers contain no additional information with two exceptions.

1. When the word "warrant" appears in the column headed "Total Price," the purchaser used military bounty land warrants instead of cash for payment. For the 1817-1819 warrants, the registers also include warrant number and military corps or regiment in which the veteran served. For the 1847-1877 warrants, the register provides warrant certificate number and date, and the name of the original recipient of the warrant, possibly someone other than the purchaser. Recipients of military bounty land warrants often sold them, and in such cases the names of purchaser and original recipient will be different.
    
2. When the name of a state other than Illinois is found in the column headed "County or State of Purchaser," a city or township may also be given.

How to request photocopies
To receive copies of a record from the Field General Land Office registers:

• Provide the complete information for the land transaction that is found in the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales database entry.
   
• Enclose the appropriate fee or provide credit card information. Illinois law requires the Illinois State Archives to charge $2.00 per page for photocopies of original land records. Non-Illinois residents will receive up to 2 photocopies of land records as part of the $10 out-of-state research fee.
  
  The Illinois State Archives no longer bills for photocopies. Orders for photocopies of entries from the Field General Land Office registers must be pre-paid. Please make checks or money orders payable to: Illinois Secretary of State. The Archives also accepts Visa, MasterCard and Discover/Novus credit cards by mail, telephone or fax in payment for photocopies of entries from the Field General Land Office registers.

• Mail, telephone or fax your request to:

Illinois State Archives Reference Unit Margaret Cross Norton Building Capitol Complex Springfield, Illinois 62756
Telephone: (217) 782-3556 Fax: (217) 524-3930 For inquiries other than requests for photocopies, please feel free to contact us by e-mail: Illinois State Archives Contact Form (Choose Illinois State Archives Reference Services as the subject)

The Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database contains information on the initial sales of public domain lands made in federal land district offices. Sales of federal lands resulted in land patents being issued at a later date by the U.S. General Land Office; patents for lands donated by the federal government to the state (i.e., school, saline, seminary, canal, and other internal improvement lands) were issued by the state. Lands donated to the Illinois Central Railroad never were conveyed by patents; clerks for that company executed deeds for those land sales. Today federal land patent records are maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (Eastern State Office), 7450 Boston Boulevard, Springfield, VA 22153.
 

Further, the National Archives maintains land sale case files for those sales which resulted in federal land patents being issued. Inquiries for those case files should be addressed to: National Archives, Textual Reference Branch-Land (NWDT1), Washington, D.C., 20408. In writing the National Archives provide that agency the full entry referenced in the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales Database as well as the type of land entry, the name of the land office where the business was conducted, and the final certificate number, all of which are provided by the Bureau of Land Management.
 

The exact location of a land purchase may be found on the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales map by using the legal description given in the database entry. The map is provided in a PDF (Portable Document Format) file, which can be viewed or printed using your Web browser and Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Macintosh and Windows versions of Acrobat Reader may be downloaded free of charge from Adobe.
 

	Click here to find out how to obtain the Adobe Acrobat Reader.
	Download the Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales map (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0 or later).

The rectangular coordinate system of surveys divides Illinois into 36-square mile townships that are located in ranges west of the 2nd Principal Meridian or east or west of the 3rd or the 4th Principal Meridian. Townships are further located as north or south of base lines that serve as reference points for each meridian.

Refer to the legal description from the database entry to find the meridian for the land purchase. Then use the numbers along the appropriate meridian and base line to count north or south of the base line and east or west of the principal meridian to locate the township in which the land is situated. For example, if the legal description is Township 28N, Range 6E 3rd P.M., begin at the intersection of the 3rd Principal Meridian and the Centralia Base Line and count 28 townships north and 6 ranges east to find a township in the middle of Livingston County.

This township will be divided into 36 sections of 640 acres. Each section is further subdivided into quarter sections, half-quarter sections, or quarter-quarter sections. Examples of these subdivisions within a township appear below. Use the figures below to determine location within a township and within a section.

NW	–	The northwest ¼ of a section (160 acres)
S2NW	–	South ½ of the northwest ¼ of a section (80 acres)
NENW	–	The northeast ¼ of the northwest ¼ of a section (40 acres)

A grant from the Federal government through its Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) has enabled the Illinois State Archives to digitize the 3,457 federal township plats of Illinois. These hand drawn plats show Illinois’ landscape as it was before American settlement as well as legal surveying measurements. Occasionally the plats indicate man-made features, both Indian and European. The U.S. Surveyor General and his deputy surveyors drew these maps of “six miles square” townships or fractional townships in preparation for the Federal government’s sale of public lands. Today Illinois’ plats still have legal, historical, and scientific value. 

Now anyone having access to a computer can view the plats on the Illinois State Archives Web site. These plats were previously available only at the Archives or at those few institutions having microfilm copies. In addition, the plats are available on a CD edition. Click here to view the Federal Township Plats of Illinois:

Federal Township Plats of Illinois