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Land Grants The Land Claims database includes listings taken from the records of the Division of State Lands of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources--the most comprehensive source of original documentation for colonial-era landholdings. The materials presented here can be supplement with additional material gleened from the American State Papers, Public Lands Series; the Trudeau Collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection; the Pintado Papers, a microfilm copy of which exists at athe Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana; and the "Original Acts" in the clerk of court offices of colonial-era civil parishes in southern Louisiana. Researchers should also consult Glenn R. Conrad's Attakapas Land Grant series, published by the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Volume 1 of the series is particularly helpful. Consult an official map of the State of Louisiana for the best guide to the township and range designations set out in the land claims database. Location of sections can be achieved by means of geological survey maps. Although virtually all Acadian immigrant households received lands from Louisiana's Spanish government, only a minority received full title to their lands--patents, popularly known as land grants. Acquisition of a Spanish patent entailed an involved process involving numerous steps. Now all Acadians bothered to follow the process to its conclusion. Indeed, many were content to terminate the process once they had been placed in possession of lands. For a discussion of the land grant process, see Gertrude C. Taylor, "Colonial Land Grants in the Attakapas," Attakapas Gazette, 15 (1980): 13-23.
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