Weekly update

The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sent out a letter to notify land surveyors that the 1973 Manual of Surveying Instructions is now available online at the following two websites: www.az.blm.gov/plats/manual/manindex.html and www.ca.blm.gov/webmanual/id1.htm.

Also, the Eastern States Office of the BLM expanded its website to include both eastern and western historic land patent records. The new website includes indexes to patents issued prior to 1908 from most western states. A special feature of the new site allows you to query the General Land Office (GLO) database by name, whether the name belongs to the patentee, warrantee, assignee or heir. The image display capabilities have been expanded, permitting the user to choose among TIFF, GIF and PDF file formats. Title companies use the information to ensure clear land titles. The BLM has computerized millions of these federal land records and has made the data accessible on the Internet in a name-searchable format at www.glorecords.blm.gov.