As genealogists, we are always searching for another way to discover the relationships between and among our ancestors and the communities in which they lived. Land records, in my experience, are one of the best ways to find these relationships and one of the most overlooked by the average genealogist.

In a genealogy “how-to” book or workshop you may have been encouraged to read the general or grantor-grantee indexes in whatever county office records land transactions. And you may have learned to copy every instance of your surname for years before and after your ancestor lived in a given location. You may even have read and photocopied some of the deeds, leases, contracts, mortgages, liens, affidavits, and agreements referred to in the indexes. And that is a good start! Every single source of information adds to the picture we try to create of our ancestor. And each document often provides more clues to research.

But do we always go the second step and follow the land itself? Have you ever been told to check out the other land record index-the numerical or tract index? That is where the genealogical gems are hiding! Tracking a parcel of land through its owners will sometimes reveal the names of married daughters, heirs-at-law, the in-laws, the grandchildren, the wife’s parents and other ancestors of another surname, the neighbors our ancestors married, and interaction with local, state, and federal governments. It is in the numerical index to lands, for federal-land states, that you find all the documents related to the land. It is through the complete record that you find the other locations your ancestors and their descendants lived at a particular time.

There are 30 federal-land states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In federal land states the land was surveyed into townships and ranges which contain 36 numbered one-mile sections of land.¹ The township system is based on a series of meridians running from pole to pole and base lines, running east to west. The Kansas Base Line is the Kansas-Nebraska border. The meridian for Kansas is the 6th Principal Meridian.² The 6th Principal Meridian is the eastern boundary of Saline County Kansas. I live in Section 12, Township 14 South [of the Base Line] and Range 3 West [of the 6th Principal Meridian].³

In Kansas, the Register of Deeds is the person responsible for the recording and maintenance of land records. In other jurisdictions it is the County Recorder. The Register keeps both an alphabetical grantor [direct, seller] and grantee [indirect, reverse, buyer] index and a numerical index to the land tracts in that county.

What You Can Find In the Numerical or Tract Index

In Kansas the numerical index is divided into townships of 36 sections. Using for an example the page covering Republic County Section 36, Courtland Township 3 South and Range 5 West (36-T3S-R5W), we find the following headings for the columns on this page: kind of instrument, date of instrument, grantor, grantee, recorded-book, page, northeast quarter, southeast quarter, northwest quarter, southwest quarter, number of acres-irregular or metes and bounds, date of release (remarks).4

Listed under the kind of instrument, we find a variety of instruments, including an executor’s deed, an incorporation petition, warranty deeds, a contract and grant of easement, quitclaim deeds, an order, probate judge’s certificate, mortgage, affidavit, release of mortgage, contract of sale, assignment, tax certificate, and a probate case. Most of the entries are for warranty deeds-the sale of a specific piece of property by one person to another. Without the Numerical Index, you would need to search in records kept by each county office and court to find all of these kinds of instruments.

How to use the numerical index

If you don’t already have the legal description of the land, you will need to search the General Index to Deeds under the surname for which you are searching. Note all the tracts owned by that person and then proceed to the Numerical Index to research each tract.

In this case study, we are going to look for the lands of Erik and Gustafva Johnson in Republic County, Kansas. The land in question is the north half of the southeast quarter of Section 36, Township 3 South, Range 5 West. We’re going to search the Numerical Index-Lands, Book 10, Courtland Township.

In using the numerical index, you don’t search for the names of your ancestors first. You look for the tract of land they purchased to see what happened to it. So, reading down the right hand column under S. E. ¼, we find that the State of Kansas issued a School Land Patent to Eric Johnson for 80 acres described as N ½ SE ¼ Section 36, T3S, R5W, November 20, 1903, upon payment of $260.00 as recorded in Deed Book A, page 278. In Kansas two sections out of every township were set aside for the benefit of common schools-the one-room school of eight grades. The land was sold to individuals and the proceeds used to fund the county schools.

On 23 June 1908 Joseph E. Johnston & wife used N ½ SE ¼ Section 36, T3S, R5W as collateral for a mortgage to purchase lots in the town of Scandia.5 In 1926 A. Ellingson gave an affidavit concerning this property stating that Mr. Ellingson “was well acquainted with Erick Johnson, owner during his lifetime of lots number 1 and 2, block 1, Town of Scandia, and of the north ½ SE 1/4 36-3-5 all of which property was left by the Will of said Erick Johnson to his wife Gustafva Johnson…after which it was to be given to their children Joseph E. Johnston and Maria Chellberg…that Joseph E. Johnston is the son of the said Erick Johnson, notwithstanding the addition of a letter ‘T’ which the said Joseph E. Johnston has added to the spelling of the name Johnson. This shows us how Joseph E. Johnston acquired ownership of the tract he used as mortgage collateral in 1908. We also learn that there were two Joseph E. Johnsons living in Republic County at the same time and that one took legal steps to alleviate the confusion between the two men by slightly changing his name. It also shows us the married name of Erick’s daughter Maria.6

In 1907 Maria Chellberg and her husband, Otto, of Cook County Illinois sold her undivided half interest in the Scandia town lots to her brother Joseph.7

On November 16, 1957, Joseph E. Johnston and wife signed a contract and grant of easement to the US Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation for the Courtland Canal and Laterals. This was a water management project to channel run-off water and reduce erosion of the soils.

The next entry, November 24, 1960, is a warranty deed from Joseph E. Johnston, widower, Pasadena, California to Warren E. Johnston, Des Moines, Iowa, Aimee Lyle, Omaha, Nebraska; Alice Wilhelm, Downer’s Grove, Illinois; Myrtle Washburn, Fairmont Nebraska; Clara Reeder of Lafayette, Indiana; and Hannah Bowman, Pasadena, California for valuable consideration…as tenants in common each as to an undivided one-sixth interest…subject to a life estate.8 Mr. Johnston was selling his Kansas property to his children, but they may take possession of it only after his death or life estate. Note that this document gives the towns in which his children live in 1960 and the daughters’ married names.

Continuing down the column we find that Hannah Bowman gives an affidavit [a written declaration made under oath] to The Public, November 24, 1960. In it she states the original warranty deed was physically delivered to me by said grantor at Pasadena California on November 24, 1960; from and after said date and until after the death of said Grantor on February 2, 1964,…said deed was delivered to me and received by me on behalf of all the Grantees therein, all of whom are children of said Grantor. Thus we learn that Joseph had moved to California after the death of his wife and died there.9

The next entry is a puzzle. Myrna M. Johnson, a widow of Polk County, Iowa gives a quit claim deed to Joed Elender Steinberg, Sedgwick County Kansas, March, 18, 1969, for an undivided one-half interest in the north half of the southeast quarter. Neither woman is listed in the Bowman affidavit as a child of Joseph E. Johnston, yet Myrna has a half interest in the property. More research is needed on her relationship to Joseph E. Johnston.

In 1977, C. L. Washburn and wife [is this Myrtle?] use the property as collateral for a mortgage.20 The mortgage was satisfied and released January 18, 1982.11

On November 19, 1985 the State of Kansas Department of Revenue issued an Inheritance Tax Certificate of Non-taxability to Carl H. Wilhelm in reference to Alice V. Wilhelm, deceased. It lists her death date as November 3, 1984 in the County of St. Clair, Illinois. Alice is a daughter of Joseph E. Johnston, according to the Bowman affidavit.

In May 1987 Carl H. Wilhelm, widower, of Belleville, Illinois gave a quit claim deed to Paul J. Wilhelm of Tinley Park, Illinois.12 The document doesn’t say Paul is Carl and Alice’s son, but this is a good probability.

Marjorie Emma Christianson, for herself and Robert Andrew Lyle, filed a Petition to Admit Foreign Will of Bret O. Lyle to probate in Republic County Kansas. Bret O. Lyle is probably the husband of Aimee Lyle listed in the Bowman affidavit, but the court document doesn’t state that as fact. Ms. Christianson and Robert A. Lyle, each received an undivided half interest in Bret O. Lyle’s undivided one-sixth interest in the Johnston property, north half of the southeast quarter, Section 35, T3S, R5W. Marjorie and Robert are probable grandchildren of Joseph E. Johnston through his daughter Aimee.

Next Jackie Willcoxon attests that Alice Faye Young, identified as one of the heirs and the adult daughter of Myrtle Washburn, deceased, is one and the same person as Alice Faye Krejci, and that the change of the last name is due to a subsequent marriage.13 Now we are getting into the names of the granddaughters of Joseph E. Johnston who have an interest in the property.

The last entries of interest in this case study are for various dates in June 1990. They show the living heirs of Joseph E. Johnston selling all their interest in the north half of the south east quarter of Section 36, Township 3 South and Range 5 West of the Sixth Principal Meridian in Kansas to Jeffrey A. Strnad and wife. The heirs included Joed E. Steinberg and Roger D. Steinberg, wife and husband, of Sedgwick County Kansas; Robert A. Lyle and Ida M. Lyle, husband and wife of Dade County, Florida; Marjorie E. Christianson, a single person of Lincoln County, Nebraska; Paul J. Wilhelm, a single person of Cook County, Illinois; James Washburn, a single person of Washington County, Arkansas; Jackie Willcoxon and Wayne W. Willcoxon, Jr. wife and husband of Fremont County, Iowa; Alice Faye Krejci, a single person of Washington County, Arkansas; Clara Reeder, a single person of Tippecanoe County Indiana; and lastly, Hannah Bowman, a single person of Los Angeles County, California.14 Only two are mentioned in the original Bowman affidavit that names the heirs of Joseph E. Johnston, one is a probably widower of a Johnston daughter, and the rest are probable grandchildren.

Using only the Numerical Index, we have traced this family through 4 generations and throughout the United States. It has given us legal name changes, clues to marriages, death dates, locations to pursue probate cases for deceased members, and evidence of the family scattering in the Twentieth Century across America. All of this information was found in less than two hours in the Republic County Register of Deeds office. The Numerical Index is a very efficient way to discover both the heirs and ancestors of a person.

Illustration

Mary Clement Douglass Certified Genealogistsm, Bachelor of Arts, (Social Studies Education). Owner of Historical Matters—Historical and Genealogical Research in Kansas, specializes in north central Kansas research. Her article, “Genealogical Research in Kansas,” was published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, June 2004. Mary revised the “Kansas” chapter in Ancestry’s Red Book, Third Edition, 2004. In addition to client research, Mary lectures nationally on Kansas resources and genealogical methodology. URL: http://historical-matters.com

End Notes

1. Land Act of 18 May 1796 provided for our federal rectangular survey system. Jeffrey B. Morris and Richard B. Morris, editors, Encyclopedia of American History, 7th Edition (HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1996), page 609. Statues At Large, Fourth Congress, Session I, 1796, Chapter 29, pages 464-469, 18 May 1796. An Act providing for the Sale of Lands of the United States, in the territory northwest of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky river.
2. E. Wade Hone, Land & Property Research in the United States (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Inc., 1997), page 104, Figure 8-1. The principal meridians and base lines of the United States.
3. Geo-Graphics, Inc. City Street Map of Salina, Kansas with the Saline County Map (Sand Springs, OK: Geo-Graphics, Inc., 1997)
4. Republic County Kansas, Register of Deeds Office, Belleville, Numerical Index, Book 10, Courtland Township 3 South and Range 5 West, Section 36
5. Republic County Kansas, Register of Deeds, Book 79, page 96.
6. Ibid, Book 119, page 577.
7. Ibid, Deed Book 78, page 190.
8. Ibid, Deed Book 203, page 24-26
9. Ibid. Book 202, page 246.
10. Ibid, Book 233, page 187
11. Ibid, Book 252, page 29
12. Ibid, Book 264, page 497-498
13. Ibid, Book 278, page 393
14. Ibid, Book 277, pages 68-76