Daily AncestorTract book
A tract book is a land office ledger recording every transaction on federal public land, arranged by township and section rather than by name.
From about 1800, local land offices kept tract books as the permanent record of what happened to each piece of public land. The books are arranged by township, with entries by section and part of section.
Because they are arranged by location, you usually need the legal description, or at least the township, to use them, though some archives have compiled name indexes. The worn originals were later microfilmed and sent to federal records centers of the National Archives.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Tract book." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/legal-land/tract-book. Last checked 2026-10-10.