1804-1891 Federal Township Plats of Illinois

It's interesting to see what local areas were like around the time the first settlers arrived. The State of Illinois has digitized plat maps available. Choose your county, then township, and browse to find what are probably the oldest available maps of the areas where you or your ancestors lived:

http://landplats.ilsos.net/Flash/FTP_Illinois.html

A searchable Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales database is here:

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/data_lan.html

A searchable database of Federal land conveyance records and images is here:

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/