25 March 2015

Who Took My Ancestor's Warrant?

Augusta Newman received a warrant for military service in the War of 1812.

Yet another man "gets his land." Why?

The reason is that Augusta Newman assigned his warrant over to that man--Thomas J. Stone. Stone likely paid Newman for the warrant.

It was sometimes easier for veterans to simply sell their warrant than to move into new federal lands and "start over."

The image with this post is from the Bureau of Land management. The surrendered warrant (which has Augusta's signature on the back where he assigns it to Stone) is at the National Archives.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the explanation. I was unsure if the warrantee got money.

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  2. The warrantee could have assigned it to someone without any money changing hands, but that's unlikely--and probably only happened if they assigned it to a family member (like an only child or something).

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