Blog

How did Fenton, Michigan get its name? According to local history, a card game between two land speculators in 1837 decided the name of the town and several of its streets.

Boston’s Back Bay wasn’t always home to elegant brownstones and upscale shopping. Discover how a massive 19th-century land-filling project transformed a tidal basin into one of Boston’s most valuable neighborhoods.

The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania began with a generations-long land dispute between the Penn and Calvert families. Discover how two English surveyors settled the disagreement and how their historic stone markers continue to mark the state boundary today.

A disagreement over the U.S.-Canada border, valuable timber, and competing land claims nearly sparked an international conflict in 1839. Discover the unusual story behind the Aroostook War, better known as the Pork and Beans War.

Why does Louisiana have parishes instead of counties? The answer goes back to its French and Spanish colonial past, when church boundaries helped shape local government. Discover how this unique history still matters for property records and title research today.

Daniel Boone helped survey Kentucky as settlers claimed land on the frontier, yet he faced complications with his own property claims. His later dispute over a Missouri land grant offers a historical example of how government records and legal requirements shape property ownership.

Abraham Lincoln’s signature helped set in motion a land grant involving roughly 3 million acres in Kansas. Learn how the Santa Fe Railway used land sales to attract settlers, build communities, and shape property ownership histories that connect to title research today.

Iowa planned 28 locks and eight dams to turn the Des Moines River into a major trade route. When the project faltered, the land behind it became the subject of decades of legal disputes. Discover how a failed transportation plan left its mark on land ownership history.

In 1781, Virginia set aside 150,000 acres in what is now Indiana to reward George Rogers Clark and his soldiers. Discover how that land grant helped establish Clarksville and what this early chapter of land ownership reveals about the history hidden in property records.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed Chicago’s official real-estate records, leaving property owners with a difficult question: How could they prove what they owned? Discover how three private abstract firms helped preserve property histories and how the disaster influenced ownership reforms.