Claire Bettag, CG, CGL, lecturer, writer, and editor, has served as trustee for BCG, APG, and NGS; director of NIGR; and co-editor of the NGSQ.
BOUNTY-LAND RECORDS AT NARA
Looking for an ancestor who might have had bounty land? You might learn something in this presentation, as bounty-land research can be puzzling, sometimes involving multiple search paths to various records. Researchers working in the bounty-land records of the National Archives (NARA)—whether on site or online—frequently fail to consult all available records. At least two NARA record groups are involved: Record Group 15 for the bounty-land applications, and Record Group 49 for the surrendered bounty-land warrants. In general, the applications are more valuable for genealogical purposes, but researchers should always consult both, as some surrendered warrant files can provide a great deal of information. Various indexes to both applications and surrendered warrants are available. Some indexes, however, are incomplete. Especially for applications, unproductive index searches must be complemented by searches in unindexed record series at the National Archives. This discussion will guide researchers to all available records, and will look at many examples along the way.RESEARCH REPORTS
If you’re like most researchers, you love the excitement of the chase, the search, the quest. You are not so excited by the prospect of writing a report about that quest. While this discussion can promise no “easy way out” and no way to avoid writing reports, it will present the essential elements for written reports—whether written for clients, for friends and relatives, or for your own files. There may be no way to make writing a research report fun for everyone, but perhaps developing a template and reporting habits can make the task less onerous.
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