How a Land Patent Broke a Brick Wall
Every genealogist has one. The brick wall. The missing link. The one elusive ancestor who has made your research painstakingly impossible. Some genealogists spend decades trying to break down brick walls, and some never do. This was the reality for my grandfather and my father. And then I broke it using a seemingly mundane source: a land patent.
If you haven't yet explored land patents, you are missing out on a huge source of genealogical information. Not only do they provide you with the exact location of where your ancestors lived, but they tell you when they purchased their property and under what authority. Knowing when property was purchased is an indispensable asset for tracing your ancestors' footsteps, particularly between census years, and knowing what act of Congress gave them the authority to purchase land in the first place can give you clues as to what sorts of things they were involved in and where to look further.
In my case, it was the authority that lead me to break down some brick walls surrounding my suspected 5th great-grandfather, Thomas Buckner. I can trace my line definitively to my 4th-great grandfather, Joel Buckner, who lived - to be frank - a crime-filled life in and around Iron County, MO. Neither my grandfather nor my father could prove that Thomas was Joel's father, but there were a few hints; namely, they lived next to each other (which I figured out thanks to land patents!). But Thomas' life was largely a mystery. I focused my efforts on finding a probate record for him as it would likely list his children, but this was impossible without a date of death. No grave could be found to give me that date either.
Fast forward to the day I was perusing Thomas' land patent on BLM GLO, looking desperately for a clue. Well, technically it wasn't Thomas' land patent - it was the transfer of the patent from his wife, Nancy, to someone else named Benjamin Johnson. But that's when I noticed: usually under 'authority', I'll see 'cash-entry' indicating the individual purchased the property outright or 'Homestead Act' indicating the person homesteaded it before coming into ownership of it.
This time, I saw something different: ScripWarrant Act of 1855. This was an act of Congress that offered bounty land to veterans. It also noted the militia Thomas was apparently in: Captain Lawson's Company, Tennessee Militia.
After some Googling, I found that Andrew Lawson was a militia captain in Sevier Co., TN during the War of 1812. The location matched some haphazard research both my grandpa and dad did that assumed the Buckners came to Missouri from Sevier Co., TN.
Thomas Buckner doesn't appear on the roster of Lawson's militia roster, yet here was a federal document saying he was. So there was only one step I knew I had to take: head down to the National Archives (I'm so lucky to live in DC!) and get the case file.
And that's when things got interesting.
Apparently, in 1856, Nancy contacted a lawyer to procure a duplicate of the bounty land warrant that Thomas had lost. Notice, in the letter below, it mentions Thomas had already died by this date:
There was my first brick wall, broken down: Thomas had died sometime before 1856. I knew he had died before 1860, as he doesn't appear in the 1860 Federal Census, but this letter helped me narrow down the date of death.
There were a few other handwritten letters, one of which had Thomas' mark on it for his signature dated 1850 requesting bounty land (at that time, the Act had just passed in Congress and it was clear Thomas was taking up the opportunity!). And then came this:
After Thomas' death, his widow Nancy requested additional bounty land. I am still not quite clear as to where this document fits in - does it accompany the first letter in which Nancy is asking her lawyer to procure a duplicate of the bounty land warrant, or is this request for more bounty land just for Nancy? The widow declaration was filled out a few months before the handwritten letter, so it would appear this was the first document Nancy had filled out, and subsequently her lawyer Charles Tucker had written the letter to explain the situation. These are questions to ask a researcher at NARA.
Regardless, this document was the holy grail for me. It gives all these details:
Date and place of marriage - 12 May 1810 in Sevier Co., TN
Who married them - Obediah Matthews, Justice of the Peace
Nancy's maiden name - Nancy Carr
Thomas' exact date of death - 19 April 1852
Finally, I have found some clarity on the events between the 1850 census, when Thomas appears, and the 1860 census, by which time Nancy is a widow - isn't that every genealogist's dream?!
And Nancy's maiden surname - Carr - was a golden fact to have. We had always suspected her surname was Carr (or Kear as it was originally) and there are many other researchers who have determined this, but no one seems to have definitive proof. The Tennessee marriage books for this location were destroyed by fire, so no records remain.
My next steps will be to utilize Obediah Matthews in my research - perhaps records exist of his work, or perhaps looking into where he lived will give further clues as to where Thomas and Nancy lived.
And now with an exact date of death for Thomas, I can hopefully track down some probate records!
Unfortunately, nothing in the documents gave any sort of proof that Joel was the son of Thomas and Nancy, but I undoubtedly am one step closer to proving it.
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