For those researching ancestors that settled in Missouri before 1803, check for Spanish or French land grants. Between the 1680s and 1803, the French and Spanish governments controlled the land that is now Missouri. To get a land grant the settler had to clear part of the land, build a house, plant crops and swear loyalty to the King of Spain (in the case of Spanish Land Grants) within a year and a day from the time the grant was received. To complete the title the claim had to be surveyed and the claim approved by the Governor General of the province, who was in New Orleans.
You can locate these records on microfilm or printed form. Here is a good source for locating land records. Missouri Land Records
JOHN T. McNail, my great great grandfather and progenitor of the McNail family of Missouri, obtained a Spanish Land Grant, #23274, in 1799. He came to South East Missouri with Moses Austin to work in the lead mines. Moses Austin had obtained written permission from the Spanish Minister to the United States to investigate these lead mine prospects in 1797, and the following year brought 30 families to settle in the area of Mine Au Breton near St. Genevieve.
John T. was born about 1763 in Caswell County, North Carolina. He and wife Mary had four children: Mary born 1809, Joseph born July 1810, Allen born 1813 in and Benjamin S. McNail born April 1815 in Washington County, Mo. and were of the first Anglo settlers west of the Mississippi River. He was in Missouri 5 years before the Louisiana Purchase and 23 years before state hood.
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