Touchdown Thursday: Brother Trouble? Finding Ancestors on Land Ownership Maps

Today's Touchdown Thursday post is about two touchdowns I made this week using one of the latest and greatest indexes available through Ancestry, the "U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918".

Using Ancestry's searchable index, I was able to locate where some of my ancestors owned land in Illinois.

Chemung Township, McHenry, Illinois in 1872

Highlighted orange in the map above is the land owned by M. Kizer (aka Morris Kizer). Morris Kizer is my fourth great grandfather on my paternal side. He was born about 1811 in New Jersey and migrated to Illinois with his brothers, Warren, Jacob, and Morgan. Jacob's land is depicted in green, and Warren's land is depicted in blue.

Morris and his wife, Maria, were the parents of my third great grandma, Frances Kizer, who married Richard George Brown. There are many Brown's that owned land in Chemung Township. Richard and his father, Joseph Brown, owned land in Chemung, although I have not determined if any of the Browns on this map are my Browns.

I wonder why Morris Kizer's land is so much further away from his two brothers?

Papineau, Iroquois County, Illinois in 1904

Pictured above (in orange) is the land of G. Rubensam (aka Gottfried Rubensam or Ruebensam). Gottfried is the brother of my third great grandfather, August Ruebensam (aka Ruebenson). Gottfried and August immigrated to the U.S. from Germany on the same ship in 1873. Gottfried migrated to Iroquois County, while his brother, August, migrated to Cook County.

I wonder why August and Gottfried went their separate ways?

Looks like there could be some brother trouble in my past. Guess I should be glad I have two sisters, instead of brothers...lol

Source of maps:
Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Various publishers of County Land Ownership Atlases. Microfilmed by the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.