Category: Genealogy News

Genealogy: Bureau of Land Management can offer insight on whether relatives used Pre-emption Act
By Tammie Dehler
Special to the Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — The Pre-emption Act of 1841 was approved by Congress in September of that year. This act permitted “squatters” on federal lands to be allowed to purchase that land at a low price from the federal government before it went up for public auction. The Act specifically allowed single men, widows, male or female heads of households, and aliens who intended to become naturalized, if 21 years old or older, and who lived on the land for at least 14 months, to purchase 160 acres of land for the price of only $1.25 per acre.

Monday, May 28, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

It’s accepted that John Hawes married a granddaughter of John Howland, Desire Gorham, thus making John and Desire Hawes’ children descendants of the Mayflower.

They had a son John Hawes, who left New England and popped up in North Carolina. Same person? If so, his issue could join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Historian General Ann S. Lainhart and Assistant Historian General Alicia Williams recently accepted this line — on the basis of a Hawes DNA study of the Hawes Y chromosome.

I didn’t necessarily expect a lineage society to accept DNA studies as proof this soon, but I know Ann Lainhart to be a thorough and fair researcher. This use of DNA to join a lineage society is certainly a major step in such research.