Kentucky Land Grants

Description: The Kentucky Land Grants database contains the records of the Kentucky Land Office from 1782 to 1924. The work is intended as a source book for historical workers, genealogists and others who need a complete and chronological index to the early documentary land records and history of Kentucky.

Background: In 1815 the Kentucky State Legislature passed an act relative to land distribution, and the records written in fullfilment of this statue are now known as Kentucky Land Warrents, 1816-1873. These grants consist of forty three books and 25,621 grants and comprise Chapter VI of this volume. The general assembly governing this group of grants opened for sale, at $20.00 per 100 acres, all the vacant lands to anyne in Kentucky, except an alien. The method followed was similar to that originally employed by Virginia, where the purchaser secured receipt from the State Treasurer which was in turn converted into a land office warrent, authorizing the owner to locate and survey a certain acreage. When the warrant was completed and returned to the land office, it was registered, and a land patent was issued to the owner within about six months. This law, however, did not apply to lands west of the Tennessee River.