288 pages with 65 total maps Locating original landowners in maps has never been an easy task-until now. This volume in the Family Maps series contains newly created maps of original landowners (patent maps) in what is now Stephenson County, Illinois, gleaned from the indexes of the Illinois State Archives. But it offers much more than that. For each township in the county, there are two additional maps accompanying the patent map: a road map and a map showing waterways, railroads, and both modern and many historical city-centers and cemeteries. Included are indexes to help you locate what you are looking for, whether you know a person’s name, a last name, a place-name, or a cemetery. The combination of maps and indexes are designed to aid researchers of American history or genealogy to explore frontier neighborhoods, examine family migrations, locate hard-to-find cemeteries and towns, as well as locate land based on legal descriptions found in old documents or deeds. The patent-maps are essentially plat maps but instead of depicting owners for a particular year, these maps show original landowners, no matter when the transfer from the federal government was completed. Dates of patents typically begin near the time of statehood and run into the early 1900s. What’s Mapped in this book (that you’ll not likely find elsewhere) … 5515 Parcels of Land (with original landowner names and patent-dates labeled in the relevant map) 81 Cemeteries plus … Roads, and existing Rivers, Creeks, Streams, Railroads, and Small-towns (including some historical), etc. What YEARS are these maps for? Here are the counts for parcels of land mapped, by the decade in which the patent applications were made: DecadeParcel-count 1820s1 1830s1 1840s5234 1850s522 1860s110 1870s102 1890s1 1920s1 What Cities and Towns are in Stephenson County, Illinois (and in this book)? Afolkey, Bolton, Browns Mill, Buckhorn Corners, Buena Vista, Cedarville, Dakota, Damascus, Davis, Eleroy, Epplyanna, Evarts, Florence, Freeport, German Valley, Hunt Corners, Kent, Lena, Loran, McConnell, Oneco, Orangeville, Pearl City, Red Oak, Ridott, Ridott Corners, Rock City, Rock Grove, Salem, Scioto Mills, South Freeport, Sunnyside, Valley Creek (historical), Waddams Grove, West Junction, Winneshiek, Winslow, Woodruff Corners, Yellow Creek