Virginia Patent Series & Old Kentucky Patent Series Home Page

In 1779 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation that established the land patenting process for appropriating land in Kentucky County. A variety of land warrants and special legislative acts could be used to initiate a patent. Under the terms of the 1789 Compact with Virginia, Kentucky agreed to honor patents issued prior to June 1, 1792, when Kentucky became the 15th state in the Union. The land patenting process continued after statehood. This website allows researchers to access files for both the Virginia and Old Kentucky Patent Series.

Although the master database for each series is under construction, researchers can access the files by patent number or by grantee. (For patent numbers with multiple grantees, names are not cross-referenced.)

Click here to start the search.