The O'Neal Genealogy Association Newsletter

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TOGA NEWS Volume III, Issue 7, July, 2003

The following information was recently posted on the Bedford County, Pennsylvania Rootsweb List at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/bedford/land.htm>

NOTE: Land warrants were the first document issued to a person who wanted to obtain land from the state.  A land warrant gave the applicant permission to have
the land surveyed.  When the survey was returned to the state with a fee, a patent was issued to the individual.  There can be many years between the issuing of a
warrant and the issuing of a patent, and it may not have been issued to the same person.

A patent is the equivalent of a deed between the state and an individual.  All land transfers after a patent was issued would be by deed.  Most deeds (but not all) were recorded in the county courthouse of the county that had jurisdiction at the time the deed was recorded.  This may be the current county, but it could also be any of the parent counties for a particular location.  Some deeds were never recorded, and some may have been recorded much later than the date of the deed, some more than 100 years later.

Copies of the original documents are available through the PA State Archives in Harrisburg.  In most cases, the documents do not include the signature of the
person warranting the land.  Many of the warrants include the year the land was first settled (listed as the date when interest was to start, almost always on March first).  This, however, may not be the date the the warrantee settled on the land if the land had changed hands before a warrant was applied for.

WARRANTEES OF LAND, COUNTY OF BEDFORD - 1771-1893  - Page 592
LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, ACRES, DATE OF SURVEY
Nicum,    William,      25,   Aug. 3, 1815
Nicum,    Leonard,     150,   Oct. 27, 1818
Nicum,    Leonard,      80,   June 3, 1825
Nicum,    John, Ex.,    48,   Jan. 4, 1837
Neal,     James O.,     10,   April 3, 1837
Nycum,    John,        176,   March 9, 1842
Nycum,    John, Ex.,    69,   April 2, 1846
Nycum,    Simon, Ex.,   18,   March 9, 1847
Nicum,    Leonard,      28,   Nov. 19, 1847
Nicum,    John,         76,   Feb. 3, 1848
Nicum,    John,         76,   Feb. 3, 1848
Nicum,    John,         55,   Nov. 7, 1848
Nicum,    William,      50,   Feb. 17, 1851