Beaver Island ArchiveSearch

Dataset

Historical propertyholder and ownership research queue

Also property chain research ledger · named-place ownership leads

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypeDataset
WithinBeaver Island archipelago
ErasEarly American eraIrish eraModern era

Purpose

This queue is the handoff between a named place or historical property report and the transactional record needed to identify an owner or propertyholder. The project currently has many strong leads, a complete current BS&A search index for both island townships, a complete public current parcel/GIS snapshot, and very few deed-level joins.

Priority leads

Place or property Current/historical lead already held Next source needed Status
Barneys Lake GNIS names Barney O’Donnell as an early settler/owner of surrounding land; the 2023 plan says most holdings are Little Traverse Conservancy Conservancy acquisition file; deeds; GLO patent search lead, not deed-matched
Greenes Lake GNIS associates the name with “Big Neal” Greene; the plan says most shoreline is DNR land DNR acquisition history; deeds; census and local-history identity bridge lead, not deed-matched
Egg Lake Current plan describes private ownership and access through Central Michigan University Title/parcel record and access agreement current statement, owner unnamed
Ojibwa Island 2025 report identifies Joe Callian as private owner in the rename dispute Current deed/title and BGN/GNIS correspondence current reported owner
George and Althea Petritz Nature Preserve Little Traverse Conservancy preserve assembled from Petritz family property and adjacent acreage Conservancy acquisition instruments and exact boundary institutional ownership lead
Point La Par 1960 report says Richard Stromberg owned property at the south end of Sand Bay Deed, plat, tax card, or parcel match newspaper property lead
Nomad 1960 report says James and Constance DeClaire purchased the Wanty property Deed and parcel/legal-description match newspaper transaction lead
Don Burke Farm 1970 report says Daniel J. Egbert purchased 120 acres in Peaine Township Section 14; it mentions a 1874 transaction Deed chain, GLO patent, farm boundary, preservation records strongest historical farm lead
1960 property notices Snow, Wanty, Phelps, Comer, Ryder, Winchester, Allen, Beeuwkes, Larson, Larowe, Visschert, Metty, Lange, Nelson, Howland, Hill and others are attached to named places or properties Newspaper-to-parcel identity work, then deeds/tax records broad lead set
GLO first purchasers 352 patents and 665 legal-location rows now join the held PLSS grid; 266 distinct grantee strings are preserved, with only James J. Strang explicitly person-linked in the first pass Evidence-led identity resolution; tract books; county deeds and tax records for later chains acquired; identity and chain work open

Join protocol

  1. Start with the exact place or property wording in the source article.
  2. Resolve the feature to GNIS, OSM, a historical map, or a named structure article without assuming the name is a legal subdivision.
  3. Use the current coordinate, address, or exact source name only to identify candidate county parcels, PLSS units, DNR parcels, and BS&A parcel numbers. Consult the generated parcel/PLSS and parcel/GLO candidates to narrow the search; an overlap does not by itself establish historical identity or title continuity.
  4. Match a deed, patent, tax card, or institutional acquisition record on its legal description—not on surname or proximity alone.
  5. Record the person/company, transaction role, date, grantor/grantee wording, and source confidence as a dated assertion. Keep occupancy, purchase, ownership, and management as separate relations.

What is not yet established

The queue does not establish that every person named in a newspaper property notice completed a purchase, that a current BS&A owner label identifies an occupant, or that either the BS&A index or DNR layer is a complete title chain. The held BLM patents are the direct source for federal grantees; the unresolved task is connecting their 266 source name strings to people without surname-only matching. Missing tract books may add entry history, while county deeds remain the most direct route to later conveyance chains.

Sources

  1. Project KB place and event articles, current through 2026-08-01.
    The queue preserves source-bounded leads already documented in the KB; it does not promote newspaper notices or planning statements into deed claims.
    kb · articles
  2. Project source-acquisition log, BLM and Charlevoix County property-record routes.
    The BLM patent layer, 3,748 public township BS&A summaries, and the complete current public parcel layer are held. Peaine detail cards are publicly retrievable; St. James/county details, historical parcel lineage, and deed images remain constrained.
    docs · sources
  3. BS&A Online public advanced-record searches for Peaine and St. James townships, retrieved 2026-08-01.
    Current source-displayed owner and situs-address labels can narrow historical leads to candidate parcel identifiers. They do not establish occupancy or a historical conveyance.
    county · charlevoix · property · parcel_index
  4. Public Charlevoix County parcel FeatureServer and project PLSS/GLO candidate crosswalk, retrieved and derived 2026-08-01.
    Current parcel polygons are connected to held PLSS subdivisions and GLO rows as spatial research candidates. The links do not establish title continuity, identity, or residence.
    county · charlevoix · parcels_arcgis · 2026-08-01 · connectivity_report
  5. Project acquisition list for archival and local-history follow-up.
    The Journal of Beaver Island History, Romig place-name work, county records, and conservancy/institutional records are prioritized as follow-up sources.
    docs · acquisitions