From the beginning of European settlement in North America, free and inexpensive land has been a tool for enticing settlers to migrate to new areas. The English and Spanish granted large tracts to individuals in return for bringing new people into areas with sparse European populations. Bounty land was granted to soldiers in America’s early wars. The end of the American Revolution led to a number of Federal plans to sell or grant vast acreages of public domain land. Homesteading opportunities attracted Americans and immigrants to the west after the Civil War. The availability of affordable land was a catalyst for the migration of many of our ancestors.
Annette Lyttle explains how the availability of affordable land acted as a catalyst for migration for many ancestors. The presentation covers colonial land grants, military bounty land, cash sales, and homesteading.
Key takeaways include:
A unique insight from the webinar is that the Virginia Company’s headright system tied the important factors of migration and land together by rewarding population increase with additional grants of land. This system allowed any person who paid their own transportation expense to settle in Virginia, or who paid for someone else to settle in Virginia, to receive 50 acres of land per settler.
To learn more about this topic and delve deeper into the records that will help uncover your ancestors’ migration stories, view the full webinar.
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Ms. Burke is well-informed on the subjects and I always enjoy her presentations. Glad to see her appearing here at Legacy Webinars.
Always enjoy Annette Lyttle speak. She gave a great presentation with lots of great information and where to find more on the subject.
Interesting topic, presented well.
The presenter was excellent. I appreciated how knowledgeable and prepared she was. She covered a lot of information in a professional and understandable way.
Annette was knowledgeable, clear and concise. She took a complex subject and made it engaging and interesting. I learned quite a bit and will follow up on my ancestors and their land grants. I definitely want to learn more about their acquisition of lands.
So informative and well organized. Easy to follow.
So much information. Would like to see breakout sessions with more Indepth information on each of the award systems and time periods.
This was very clearly the best BCG seminar that I have attended. Thank you. Information on the Colonial land grants F & I war was particularly helpful for me.