Your historic place in the world

After you've found your place in the world using the Thomas Guide, one interesting search is to find out who first owned the property. Thanks to the Bureau of Land Management, you can search those "land patent" records online.

Click on "Search Land Patents", and then select the "Standard" search tab. Select the state along the top, and then select the county from the drop down menu in the "Land Description" section. Enter the block number under "Section NR" and the township and range information as well. Finally, ask for Glorecords to show you the "Results List" by "land descriptions, sorted by "Location" and click "Search"

From the results list, you can select the property by clicking on the Aliquot Parts that describe your parcel. The parcel described last week was "the North West quarter of the South East quarter of section 2, of the 12 South township of the 2 West range." It appears that the North West and North East quarters were joined in the North Half and go by the accession number CACAAA 081439 .

If you open up the record, you'll see that the area around Vintage Place, in Escondido was originally patented by Fred S. Rogers January 21st, 1890. Mr. Rogers - thanks to research materials available in the Pioneer Room - was a 25-year-old dry goods clerk, son of William and Eliza Rogers and brother to Sylvester S, also of Escondido. William was in real estate development and Sylvester owned Escondido's first prescription drug store at the time. Fred and his pregnant wife Nellie moved from Escondido to Syracuse, New York where he worked as an electrical engineer. Fred's son Malcolm Jennings Rogers was born there September 7th, 1890. Malcolm was a pioneering archaeologist and Curator of the San Diego Museum of Man.