My Trails into the Past

I love land records—though it is truly a love-hate relationship. Land records can give you a lot of information but they are not as forthcoming with easy information like those of vital or census records. You have to dig a bit.  You have to analyze a lot. There are complicated words and abbreviations you must understand. One record does not tell you much. You need to collect all of the land transactions for your ancestor. There are some questions to ask, too, such as: When did he get the first piece of land? How did he get it? Did he buy it, get it as a land grant, homestead it, or was it bounty land? What happened to it later when he moved or died? This journey into land records began with the 22 October 1927 obituary for William C. Gleeson, the brother of my great-grandmother, Anna M (Gleeson) Sullivan. The obituary stated that he was “prominent in Eastern Oregon some years ago, where he was one of the first to engage in dry land farming.” [1] William li...