Methods
Federal Land Record or County Deed?
This field note is part of the FOBA learning stream. It is meant to orient readers and point toward better source work.
Key points
- A land question gets cleaner when you identify the record system first.
- Federal land entry files and patents answer government-to-private transfer questions; county deeds, tax digests, probate, and court records usually answer later title-chain questions.
- Many public pages need both systems, but they should not be collapsed into one proof sentence.
Next steps
- Write whether the claim is about first transfer, later sale, inheritance, tax listing, occupancy, partition, or heirs property.
- Capture legal description, parties, witnesses, date, jurisdiction, and repository.
- Use open or citation-needed wording when the title chain has gaps.
Source trail
- FOBA Land Entry Files guide – Internal land-records toolkit entry.
- National Archives – Land Entry Case Files – Official federal land-record overview.