Every effort was made to record exactly as in the original, even when there are obvious errors in the original. Researchers are reminded to spell creatively when a family presumed to have patented land in the territory which is now in Christian County is not located under the current surname spelling.

Records are presented in three orders. Records are first indexed strictly alphabetically by the name of the person patenting the land. The patentee may be one individual, one individual who had one name when the process started and a different name when it was completed, a man who began the process and his widow who finished it and even sometimes her next married name, a company, or sometimes a group of people who may have either a business or a family relationship. In any case, every name in the record will be indexed. By checking the record numbers, you can see whether more than one name is given on a single patent.

Records are next indexed by the date. All patents granted in a single day are arranged alphabetically by name of patentee. This permits users to view people who were contemporaries.

Last, records are indexed by location. Each range and each township is in one order, with the corresponding range or township in numeric order, the sections in numerical order, then the patentees in alphabetical order. To determine actual neighbors, you must consider how sections are numbered. This is just for Christian County. Neighbors may have been in other counties. Because relatives and friends from former homes often lived nearby, knowing neighbors may provide hints at proving identities and relationship. You are cautioned to remember that people whose land adjoined but who patented the land decades apart may well have never known each other. Also, like the man who said he did not wish to own all land - only that which was next to his own, it's not logical or possible that everyone was related to every neighbor on every side. Nor is it possible that everyone came to this area from a previous residence with every single neighbor. If everyone was kin to every neighbor, the entire county would have to be one single family.

In identifying neighbors, it is important to remember the arrangement of sections are as follows:

Christian County has one mile of the southernmost (or sections 31-36) of Township 28N in Ranges 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19W and half (or sections 31-33) of 18W. These are along the Greene and Webster County lines. All sections of Township 27N in Ranges 19 through 24W are in Christian County, as are the western section (4-9, 16-21, & 28-33) of Range 18W. Since each section is a square mile, that means, that north to south, the panhandle is seven miles, and the northern part of the county is six and a half ranges or 39 miles from east to west. Below that, all of ranges 21, 20, and 19W plus the east half (sections 1-3, 10-15, 22-27, and 34-36) in 22W and the west half (4-9, 16-21, & 28-33) of Range 18W are in Townships 26N and Township 25 N. Since all of Townships 25N, 26N, and 27N and the bottom line of 28N are in the county, that means, it's 19 miles north to south, and the southern part of the county is 24 miles east to west. That is, the panhandle between Stone and Greene Counties is 7 miles by 15 miles, or 105 square miles; the eastern rectangle is 19 miles by 24 miles or 456 square miles, for a total of 561 square miles.

The final section of land patents is an analysis of some of the women homesteaders of Christian County, who they were, and how they came to have the patent in their name. This is still a working project. I will update and correct the file as other research is completed.

Please note that some of these lists are LARGE and may take a while to download!