Whether your ancestors lived in a state-land or public-land state affects the land records you'll look for. Learn which states fall into which category.
The types and locations of your ancestors' land records depend on
whether he lived in a state-land state or a public-land state. Before
state-land states became US territories, entities such as Colonial
governments controlled, surveyed and distributed their land. Early
property-transaction records are usually in those states' archives. The
US government owned the land in public-land states before they entered
the Union; the National Archives and Records Administration has records
of federal government land sales.
PUBLIC-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 (parts were surveyed under earlier systems)
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• South Dakota
• Utah
• Washington
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming
STATE-LAND STATES
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Kentucky
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia
From the September 2005 Family Tree Sourcebook