Genealogy Examples

Although some claims offer little more than name of claimant and location of claim, others, such as Thomas Bassett's claims for two properties along the Tombigbee River in the Mississippi Territory (present-day Alabama), contain detailed information on the claimant and his family. In 1804 Bassett petitioned the "Commissioners appointed in pursuance of the act of Congress, passed the third day of March, 1803, for receiving and adjusting the claims to lands south of Tennessee and east of Pearl river" for rights to these two properties that his family had previously owned under British and Spanish grants. As with many land claims presented before boards of commissioners or other federal agencies, the board forwarded the records to Congress. To prove his case, Bassett submitted notarized depositions, translations of Spanish petitions and titles, surveys, and other documents, which supply information on his family dating back to 1780. This documentation accompanying these two claims builds an interesting portrait of the Bassett family.

In 1780 the Bassett family received from the British Government of West Florida grants for two properties. Indians killed Thomas Bassett, the father of the family, on or near his land in 1781. He was about 37 years old. His wife, Lucy, and two sons, Nathaniel and Thomas, survived. The region came under Spanish control in 1783 as a result of Spain's support for the United States during the American Revolution. In June 1787, the Spanish governor of the territory, Don Stephen Miro, signed and confirmed property and rights to Nathaniel Bassett, son of the late Thomas Bassett. Thomas Bassett, son of the late Thomas Bassett and Nathaniel's brother, was approximately 21 years old in 1787.

In 1788 the Bassett family went to New Orleans to manage business in the area. In their absence, the Bassett family allowed a William Powell to live on a section of their land. Lucy Bassett then suffered a series of accidents. The government seized her property, including the Bassetts' titles to their land, and placed the titles into the public deposit in New Orleans. A fire there in 1794 destroyed the original British and Spanish titles to the two properties.

On July 7, 1800, Nathaniel Bassett wrote to the Spanish government to confirm his title to the land, which had become part of the United States in 1798. By August 4, 1800, Spain had confirmed Nathaniel Bassett's petition. On March 19, 1804, Thomas Bassett, acting as administrator for his late brother, Nathaniel, petitioned the U.S. Government for the rights to his family's lands. The Board of Commissioners confirmed the land to Thomas Bassett, stating that each claim was "supported agreeably to the requirements of the law." Such detail and quantity of family information depicts the true value of the American State Papers to researchers interested in family and social history of the early American period.

Forbes Bounty Land
Congress also was responsible for the relief of veterans of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and passed many acts relating to bounty land, pensions, and other assistance to the soldiers and their families. Congress passed several public acts regulating veterans' claims that established common eligibility requirements and delegated to the secretary of war the responsibility for administering the provisions.

Many veterans and their heirs, however, brought their claims directly to Congress for adjudication, and Congress passed private acts to reward these individuals. Bounty land claims within the Public Lands volumes can supply information about the claimants' military service and subsequent lives. For many veterans of these two wars, the bounty land claims supplement the compiled military service records and pension bounty land files available at the National Archives.

As Abraham Forbes's bounty land claim shows, the American State Papers can be especially valuable in locating information relating to the military service and bounty land records of veterans who do not appear in War Department files. Abraham Forbes does not have a compiled military service record, pension application, or bounty land application at the National Archives, and he is not listed on the army register of enlistments. However, a report from the House of Representatives Committee on Private Land Claims in the American State Papers reveals:

That said Forbes was a citizen of the United States, and removed to Upper Canada prior to the last war; that he joined the troops of the United States, and was employed as a spy, and had the entire confidence of the officers of the United States, and performed many valuable and important services to the United States in that character; that he had been promised a handsome remuneration by Col. Christie, whose premature death perhaps, prevented any communication to the government in behalf of said Forbes; that he acted with the United States troops until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged. . . .

In recognition of these services, Congress ultimately passed a bill granting Forbes 320 acres of land.

After locating a claim in the American State Papers, the researcher can also contact the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives for assistance in finding more information on the claim in congressional records. For many of the claims that appear in the American State Papers, there is an original petition and supporting documentation in House and Senate committee files. To contact the Center, write to Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001 (telephone 202-357-5350).

Thomas Toms
Take, for example, Thomas Toms, a private in Capt. George Maxwell's company of militia. There is no compiled military service record for Toms at the National Archives, and most of the information regarding him in Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files (National Archives Microfilm Publication M804) comes directly from the American State Papers.

An entry for Thomas Toms appears on the 1794 list of Invalid Pension Claims for Virginia. (American State Papers) His entry on the 1794 list of invalid pensioners for Virginia in the Claims volume states that he lived in Albemarle County, Virginia. He was wounded in 1780 at King's Mountain and claimed a pension relating to the following disability:

Severely wounded on the head, being scalped on the left temple with a stroke from a hatchet, which does much injury to that eye; is also disabled in two fingers on the left hand, and wounded in the right hip and neck; all which he received in the service of the United States, against Major Ferguson, on King's mountain. The examining physician gave no recommendation for pension entitlement.