In Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara's father says, "Land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts." Owning and working the land was very important to most of your ancestors. This makes land records a very valuable source of information for your family tree, but they are often overlooked by the novice genealogist.
It is always important to try and locate exactly where your ancestors lived in a certain county. Many questions can be answered with this information: Were they close to the county border? What churches did they live close to? What would have been the closest cemetery? What are the possible routes of migration? Who were their neighbors (this can often give clues to former residence or possible relationships)?
Some land records will help establish the movement pattern of an ancestor, for example the record may state, "Madison Almon, lately of Coosa, County".
Some list relationships and, unlike most other records, the older the land record is the more details they seem to have.
There are three major types of land transactions...
