United States. Bureau of Land Management. Tract Books. See the United States Research Outline, “Land and Property” section, for a full citation.

The Bureau of Land Management has an ongoing project of producing compact disc indexes of their records. Some states’ land records are now available on CD, and the BLM is working on Indiana. The Indiana records for patents and legal land descriptions are available on the General Land Office web page, www.glorecords.blm.gov. They are indexed.

You may also want to use the following regional indexes:

Cowen, Janet C. Crawfordsville, Indiana Land Entries, 1820–1830. Indianapolis, Ind., J.C. Cowen, 1985. (FHL book 977.2 R2cL; computer number 423865.) This land office was in the central part of western Indiana, serving the counties of Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Clinton, Fountain, Hendricks, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam, Vermillion, Warren, and White. This index provides the receipt number, person’s name, state and county of residence (this may be their previous residence prior in another state), location by range and township, number of acres, and date.

Cowen, Janet C. Indiana Original Land Entries, Volume 3, Brookville-Indianapolis, 1820–1831. Indianapolis: J. C. Cowen, 1986. (FHL book 977.2 R2co; computer number 619375.) This covers land sales in the central Indiana counties of Boone, Brown, Clinton, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Henry, Johnson, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Randolph, Ripley, Rush, Shelby, Union, and Wayne. This index provides the receipt number, person’s name, state and county of residence (this may be their previous residence in another state), location by range and township, number of acres, and date.

A bibliography of books about land records in Indiana is found in:

Miller, Carolynne L. Indiana Sources for Genealogical Research in the Indiana State Library. See the “Archives and Libraries” section of this outline for a full citation.

Helpful maps that show the territories, territorial counties, early counties, land offices, forts, rivers, railroads, canals, and roads are found on pages 1 to 21 of Malinda E. E. Newhard’s book A Guide to Genealogical Records in Indiana, cited in the “For Further Reading” section of this outline.

The following publications will help you understand the land system:

Wilson, George R. Early Indiana Trails and Surveys. Indianapolis: C. E. Pauley, 1919. (FHL book 977.2 B4 v.6 no.3; film 824286 item13; fiche 6051190; computer number 273813.) This contains the history of early roads and land grants.

This Land of Ours: The Acquisition and Disposition of the Public Domain: Papers Presented at the Indiana American Revolution Bicentennial Symposium, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, April 29 and 30, 1978. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1978. (FHL book 977 R2i; computer number 31055.) This contains a series of historical essays relating to Indiana land sales.

Subsequent Land Transfers in County Records

The office handling subsequent land transfers in Indiana is known as the County Recorder. The two major record series that are of interest to genealogists are deeds and mortgages. Deeds have been kept in separate ledgers since the establishment of the county; mortgages have been recorded separately only since the late 1840s to the early 1850s. Both types of records have been indexed within each volume. In the 1850s recorders began General Indexes to Deeds, Grantor and Grantee, and General Indexes to Mortgages, Mortgagor and Mortgagee. Recorders were to go back to the first volume to create the general index. Sometimes they missed a record, or, if the records failed to fall into the category of a deed or mortgage (such as a manumission of a slave), these transcripts were missed in the General Index. From the Civil War to about 1880, many recorders kept both a pre-printed deed record and a free-form manuscript ledger. You should consult both to be certain all references to an ancestor have been found. The Family History Library has microfilm copies of Indiana county land records for more than 60 of the 92 counties through 1900 and has begun microfilming mortgage records through 1885.

Indiana land records are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

INDIANA- LAND AND PROPERTYINDIANA, [COUNTY]- LAND AND PROPERTY