The McNutt Mystery

A new little part to the Levi James McNutt mystery came to me the other day.
A person named Gardner is a Find A Grave volunteer over in Mississippi.  She found Sarah Frances Hopkins grave stone!
Sarah Frances Hopkins is the daughter if Elisha and Elizabeth Smithwick Hopkins.  She is also the only Sarah Hopkins that was the daughter of Elisha and Elizabeth Hopkins, the Grandparents of Levi James McNutt. This makes it possible that this is the grave of LJ McNutt's mother.

This graveyard is in Guntown, Lee County, Mississippi. It's an old graveyard and apparently abandoned even though it is right in town.  An interesting thing was the good condition of the gravestone.  I said that someone must have put a new stone there since the one placed there in 1874 would have been well worn by now.  I was hoping there might be living relatives still in the area. Gardner wrote back and mentioned that the gravestone was an example of pottery markers.  Apparently these where found in northeastern Mississippi and northwestern Alabama. Pottery markers are glazed and weather well compared to marble markers.
http://hillcountryhogsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/loyd-style-stoneware-or-pottery-grave.html
I will be writing to Guntown city hall to find out if they know anything about the folks buried in the field across from them...

Looking up Western Land Records in BLM GLO

When you go to the BLM GLO Records site the first thing you need to look for is the "Search Land Patents" link at the top of the page. Luckily, they designed the site so that the necessary links are always at the top of the pages [bless you folks!].
When clicking the link brings you to the search page, it's just a matter of picking the state where your ancestor lived, filling in their last name [and if you need to narrow the search, putting in their first name] and pushing the search button.
The reason you may only want to use a last name is because it allows you to read the list of land records under that name in case siblings or spouses may have homesteaded [yes, women did this too!].

Here we can see that I've entered L.J.'s last name only and Oklahoma for the state. That's because I knew that he and his family left Mississippi and settled in Kiowa County, OK. It was just a matter of finding out when.


The next image shows the Land Patent Details that resulted from the search. This gives the date and information about the land title. But look at the tabs at the top.
There's one for legal land description and one for Document Image. Legal land description will tell you exactly what section your ancestor got in their land grant or purchase. Document Image is a copy of the paperwork our ancestors received when they paid for the land [or met the requirements for homesteading].

There are also survey records and plat maps to be had. This may take a little more work to understand, but it is well worth it!

Go ahead, try it! I'll bet you'll be printing all kinds of paperwork if your family migrated west.

Looking up Land Records - BLM

This is one of the land records that relates to L.J. [Levi James] McNutt's purchase of land in Kiowa County, Oklahoma in 1908. Kiowa was one of the last Oklahoma counties to be opened for homesteading.
There's a wonderful tool provided by the BLM that lets you research your ancestors homesteading activities in the western states.
The BLM GLO Records.
http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
This site only relates to land titles that where transferred from the Federal Government to individuals, and only relates to certain western states. "This site does not cover the thirteen colonies, their territories, and a few other states."

They are scanning and adding documents at a rapid rate so if your ancestor's land record, for the listed states, doesn't show up on the first search, come back again [often there will be a listing that says, scanning in progress].

The next couple of articles will explain how easy it is to use the Land Patents Search.