More Loyalist Petitions - an example

We have talked about Loyalist Petitions for land and the UCLP in other blog posts. There can be many bits and pieces of affidavits, letters, etc in a Loyalist petition for land. These are all important to the genealogy researcher. But one part of any petition which is often overlooked by researchers is the outside flap or envelope of the entire bundle.

The outside envelope holds important clues and details. It will tell you whether or not the individual's petition was granted. It will give the size of the grant if one was awarded. It may hold other details. When searching in the Upper Canada Land Petitions (UCLP) don't overlook all the pages including the outside flap.

Here is a good example - the outside envelope of the petition for land of Sarah Follick (Vollick) We learn several things from this outside envelope - first that she was the daughter of Jacob DeCow (DeCou), secondly that she was recommended for 200 acres of land. This was a normal size grant of land to a child of a Loyalist. So we know that her married name is Follick (Vollick) and that she was the daughter of a Loyalist (DUE).

If Sarah was an ancestor now we would hunt for her father's Loyalist petitions, using the clues that his name was Jacob DeCow (DeCue and variants)

The petitions themselves which are inside the bundle reveal more about Sarah and her husband John Vollick but I'll save that for another blog post.