Sources
County Clerk Office, Fairfield, Wayne Co., IL
IRAD  Illinois State Archives Public Domin Records database by Purchase database Another Link to

Also visit  (coming soon??)
Bureau of Land Management - General Land Office Records   aka "GLO", direct link is below.

Years ago when Grandma and I visited the court house in Fairfield, we went through some of the Land Purchase books but, she always quit.  I do not know why we never transcribed them.

September, 2000, my sis and I traveled from Wisconsin to the County Clerk Office, Fairfield, Wayne Co., IL.  We spent 2 days transcribing all the Land and some vital records.   When I got home, I packed all 30+ spiral notebooks into boxes to look and work on 'when I had time'.

The summer of 2011, my 2 younger g-kids went to my storage in Fairfield.  They went through the boxes and high-ho!!  They found boxes loaded with spiral notebooks and brought a couple boxes back to the house.

Boxes I had totally forgotten about are now being transcribed to put on this site, starting with the land records.

After my readers and I transcribed these books, I visited the IRAD web site to compare the data I got in the court house with their site.  I found between IRAD and the records we transcribed, there were many differences.  With this knowledge, I compiled the to create this page.

During 20011, the Franklin Co., ILGen web Coordinator pointed us to the Government Land Office web site. With her help, all 100 pages were sent to me, of which my goal was to compile those records with what I had to  on this site.

The 'GLO' web site data is laid out so different and has some important data.  After several weeks trying to design a nice and easy page for researchers, I realized it was too much work.

For the time being, the data on the following pages were compiled from what Sis and I transcribed at the County Clerk office and IRAD Land Purchases.

The following pages are people that purchase land in Wayne County, IL as early as 1818 and I think end at 1855.

This should help the researcher document their family was in Wayne County.  For example, in the 1850 census, a family is not found to be here.  According to the Land Records, that family bought land here the same year (1850) but after the census was taken (from the dates of census taken and when the land was purchase).

If you find your family name in the Land Records, PLEASE go visit IRAD (for now) and click on the link that is on their name for more information on their purchase.  I strongly suggest you Do NOT contact the County Clerk office for a copy of the record!  They do not have the 'man-power', it will cost you, and you can get the 'exact data on IRAD Land Purchase.

Also, visit the 'GLO' web site for information or land purchases that the County Clerk office or IRAD does not have.

Many "Thank You" to Grandma for spending time with me to read these books and my  Sis for helping me as we spent 2 days of our vacation in a Court House transcribing records.  Last, thank you Susan Dorris (Franklin County ILGenWeb Coordinator) for sharing her finding the GLO web site and helping me with the data from that site.

Smiles!

Dianna
P.S.
Some Surname spellings are not "always correctly spelled".  Also, many were very hard to read (being so old and smoke damages from the fire).  We did the best we could and I am now very tired....