Land patent is a grant of land in colonial America or it is an instrument conveying government owned lands to individuals. There are two types of states where land records are concerned. These are: State Land States and Public Domain States. In State Land States land patent was either granted by a Proprietor or by the State Government. In Public Domain States the land patent was granted by the Federal Government. Both State Land States and Public Domain States may contain areas where land patent was granted by a Foreign Government. The first granting of land patent to an individual resulted in a Land Entry File (Patent File). These files contain all kinds of information depending on the reason the land patent was issued. Files can be as slim as a receipt for a cash purchase or may contain many pages of information to prove Just Cause for land patent to be granted.

One of the most valuable sources of information for family historians are the documents found in the Land Entry Case Files or Land Patent Files. For State Land States the Land Patent Files are usually found in the State's Archives, for Private Land Claims (land granted by a foreign government) files are found in different places, in Public Domain States the Land Entry Case Files are found at the National Archives. To order a Public Domain Land Entry Case File from the National Archives requires the information found on the land patent which includes: Land Act, State, Land District (county), Date of the Act and Patent or Warrant Number. To order a copy of a Land Entry Case File for the land patents you will need form NATF 84.

The Bureau of Land Management is the governmental agency that has jurisdiction over the public domain land in Public Domain States. The BLM is divided between Eastern and Western States. The Eastern States office has jurisdiction over; Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. The western states have individual offices. It is the Eastern Bureau of Land Management that has a web-site and is in charge of putting on-line the millions of land patents issued for Public Domain Land.

For Land Patents issued in the years 1785-1906 only those states under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Bureau of Land Management are on-line. For the Western States only the land patents after 1908 are either available on-line or are being added.