This month’s meeting will be available to members and visitors via Zoom only
Meeting Date: October 15th, 6:30 Mountain Time
Meeting Description:
Jon Fairchild will give a presentation on the Homestead National Monument, its historical significance and on utilizing homesteading records for genealogical research.
Homestead National Monument of America is located in Beatrice, Nebraska. It sits on the site of the Freeman homestead, the first parcel claimed under the Homestead Act of 1862. President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation designating this land as a National Monument in 1936.
Homestead National Monument
Homestead National Monument of America, Fold3.com, FamilySearch, & the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have partnered in an effort to digitize all Homestead Land Entry Case Files housed at the National Archives. The Homestead Records Project seeks to digitize the over 800,000 Homestead Records from nearly 200 land offices in all 30 Homesteading States. Nebraska records were the first to be digitized, and they are now complete. Ten states have been completed and the other twenty states are currently only availible in hard copy at the National Archives.
If you are researching Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Wyoming, and/or Utah Homesteaders, you can search for their homestead records (up to 1908) at Homestead National Monument of America for free. You may also search for digitized homestead records from your own computer on Fold3.com and Ancestry.com, both of which require a subscription for these premium records. Patent information can be found on the Bureau of Land Managment’s General Land Office Records website for all states, but does not include the detailed information found in the land-entry case files.
Presenter:
Historian Jon Fairchild
Jon Fairchild works for the National Park Service and is the historian at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice Nebraska. Jon received his Ph.D. in United States History at the University of Houston. His minor field is Public History. His primary field is Native American history, and more generally the long nineteenth century.
Everyone that is interested in genealogy or family history is welcome!
Questions? Contact: Program Chair Mary Novotony at [email protected]
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Visitors: Please register below for this class to receive the Zoom online instructions and handouts
Bookings
Registration is closed for this event.