

Source documents include homesteads, chas sales, warrants, private land claims, swamp lists, state selections and railroad lists.

This CD includes records which show who obtained what land from the U.S. The following are sources which may be searched for these early records: received it in 1783/4 and it was under 9 different territorial or government subdivisions before it became it's own territory in 1849. Minnesota was claimed first by France in 1671, briefly ceded to Spain in 1762 and then to England in 1763.

The first federal and state transactions were recorded and the paperwork kept at the federal and state level, while all future transactions were recorded at the office of the county register of deeds. Later when the land was sold or mortgaged by private owners the document was called a deed. The first sale of a piece of land from the government was called a land patent and the first owner of the land was called a patentee. Minnesota is a public-domain ("Federal-Land") state where unclaimed land was surveyed, then granted or sold by the government through federal and state land offices. Sale of the land may show when he left and where he was moving. You may learn where a person lived previously, his occupation, if he had served in the military, if he was a naturalized citizen, and other clues. They often reveal other family information, such as the name of a spouse, heir, other relatives, or neighbors. Land records are primarily used to learn where an individual lived and when he lived there. Land ownership was generally recorded in an area as soon as settlers began to arrive. The availability of land attracted many immigrants to America and encouraged westward expansion.
