David McCorkle to Present at NGS 2021 Live!

David McCorkle

SESSION NUMBER: NGS2104-LV-15 DATE & TIME: Thursday, 20 May 2021 at 2:30 p.m.

This session focuses specifically on locating and researching North Carolina land grants. However, some of the information will assist in researching any land grant, especially in state-land states. Did your ancestors live in the U.S. prior to the 20th century, especially pre-Civil War? If so, it’s possible they passed through North Carolina. Land grant records, which date back to the 1660s, may be the only evidence of this. Records exist even if someone simply applied for a grant but never received it or sold the rights to someone else. In addition to evidence of time and place, land grant records may assist in finding neighbors, provide a feel for the community where your ancestors lived, and reveal migration and settlement patterns. Obtaining a grant sometimes took many years. The process required multiple steps that generated documents each step of the way.

Land grants have a mystique about them which implies a person receiving one must have been important or done something special. In reality, they are simply the transfer or sale of vacant land from the government to a private individual. So, your ancestor did not have to be like Jamie Fraser from the Outlander historical fiction series who received a North Carolina land grant directly from the Governor.

Use North Carolina Land Grant Images and Data (nclandgrants.com) to quickly search all 216,000 North Carolina land grants, complete with data and images of original documents, with many available nowhere else online.

BIO: David is the creator of the free website North Carolina Land Grant Images and Data and specializes in land grants, land mapping, and land records in general. He has been writing software since 1974.

To learn more about the NGS 2021 Virtual Family History Conference’s week-long events, 17-21 May, visit the conference and download a copy of the program brochure. A discounted Early Bird registration fee is available through 15 March 2021.