Wisconsin Land Records

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Being a public-domain state, Wisconsin was divided into a grid of 1,554 townships by the GLO survey crews. The earliest land office was at Mineral Point, opening on 10 November 1834. Land that is presently Grant County, with the exception of mineral land, was available at that time. The local records of the nine GLO district offices are at the Commissioner of Public Lands, 127 West Washington Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53703. Many records of the Commissioners of Public Lands are in the State Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. These include, for example, copies of original federal survey plat books, 1834–58. The State Archives, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, holds copies of all Wisconsin Local Land Office Tract Books, showing original owners or recipients of most land in Wisconsin. The BLM Eastern States Land Office in Alexandria, Virginia, has patents, copies of tract books, and township plats. The National Archives has land-entry case files. See Alexander F. Pratt, “Reminiscences of Wisconsin,” in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Vol. 1, Lyman Copeland Draper, ed. (1855; reprint, Madison, Wis.: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1855), page 137, in regard to claims associations near Milwaukee in the late 1830s.

Subsequent land transactions after initial ownership are recorded in the county's register of deeds. Most counties have grantor/grantee indexes to their land records.

Additional information is available in Paul W. Gates, “Frontier Land Business in Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 52 (1962): 306–27; and Frederick N. Trowbridge, “Confirming Land Titles in Early Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 26 (1942): 314–22.

Wisconsin Land Records: This database contains information on Wisconsin (U.S.A.) land records. The database comes from the Bureau of Land Management's Wisconsin Pre-1908 Homestead and Cash Entry Patent and Cadastral Survey Plat Index. Information recorded in the collection includes patentee name, land office, legal description, etc.

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