Stephen Sherwood of LaSalle County, Illinois (Tip #2)

Records from the Bureau of Land Management

Stephen Sherwood of LaSalle County, Illinois 

Township (35-N), Range (8-E), Section (22), Meridian (3rd PM)

( I believe this piece of land would be located today in Kendall County and in or on the border of Grudy County).  Kendall County which was formed from LaSalle and Kane County in 1841.  Stephen's wife, Maria died in 1839, and later that same year he married, Sophia Parker in Will County.  They would later moved to Lake County.   Stephen and Maria (his first wife) were in DeKalb County where he was a blacksmith in 1838.  County borders were changing during this time period.   In checking county records, sometimes the records are in a different county that the county where the area might be today.  I must admit, I am still sorting through the 1835-1843 period to determine where Stephen might have lived and where the records might be.  I hope this map helps as it has the six counties listed here.

Northeast Illinois Counties

You may want to go to glorecords.blm.gov to see if your ancestors purchased government land.

(Click icon on side--Tip #2)

Locating Stephen Sherwood on BLM land (Tip #2)

I knew Stephen Sherwood had lived in Northern California from about 1879-1894.  I entered his name of the BLM form (See Tip #2) to see if he had purchased government land at that time.

This entry showed Stephen Sherwood did purchase government land in 1884, and gave the 

location for that land.  I was not able to print out the deed like the previous example, but this at least gave the location of the land he purchased.  Stephen was buried in nearby Trinity California where he died in 1894.  I know this is getting ahead of his story, but I wanted to provide an example of how Tip #2 can help in locating your ancestors.  You can also follow Tip#1 for find Stephen in findagrave.com, and locate the place of his burial.  Now try using both of these tips to locate one of your own ancestors. (Click tip #2 on side to do this).