Source Information

State of Illinois. Illinois, U.S., Public Land Purchase Records, 1813-1909 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

About Illinois, U.S., Public Land Purchase Records, 1813-1909

Land sales from the Illinois public domain were recorded by a variety of persons employed by the federal, state or local governments. The records in this database were transferred to the Illinois State Archives and detail the sale of over 54,000 square miles of public land. Each entry includes the purchaser's name, purchase date, number of acres, price per acre, and in some cases the purchaser's sex and residence. Researchers will find information regarding over 538,000 land sales from the 19th Century. For those seeking ancestors from Illinois, this can be an extremely helpful source of information. For a list of abbreviations used in this database, please refer to the following URL on the Illinois State Archives website Abbreviations.