[Genealib] New, must-have finding aid from NARA

[Beth Stahr]

I've been asked to post this message to the list by Claire M. Bettag, CG, CGL, a former Director of the National Institute of Genealogical Research (NIGR) at NARA and a former editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. She recently reviewed this book for the NGSQ. Claire wrote,

"The National Archives (NARA) has recently published a valuable new finding aid-a guide to records of the General Land Office (Record Group 49). It is by far the most comprehensive guide to federal land records at NARA and is an important finding aid for anyone interested in doing work in the those records. It should be in every serious genealogical collection.


The Trans-Mississippi West, 1804-1912: A Guide to Federal Records for the Territorial Period; Part IV: A Guide to Records of the Department of the Interior for the Territorial Period; Section 3, Records of the General Land Office, compiled by Robert Kvasnicka, staff archivist at NARA, is the last installment of the Trans-Mississippi-West series. It is hard to overstate the value of this guide, as it opens the door to voluminous federal land records not before described in finding aids. In more than 1,100 pages, for example, it describes in detail General Land Office records like private land claims, correspondence, contests resulting from railroad grants or mineral lands, myriad registers, investigations, surveys, reservation records (military and non-military), and a great deal more. It also describes the better known and more often used bounty land warrant and scrip files and land entry papers. In addition to descriptions, the guide sometimes offers examples, suggestions on how to use the records in research, and it provides citations for every series (needed to request and retrieve records).


If you subscribe to genealogical / librarian mail lists, forums, etc., you may want to mention this new and very helpful research guide. The double volume set sells for $49 and can be ordered online. 


For more information and a link to the order form, see: http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2008/nr08-62.html . A review of the publication appears in the current issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly (March 2008; Vol. 96, no. 1), 69-70."


Beth A. Stahr, MLS, CG
Interim Head of Reference
Southeastern Louisiana University

bstahr at bellsouth.net
bstahr at selu.edu
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