Books for researching your land
Two books go with this site. Both are free to read here and free to download, with no account or sign-up.
Knowing Your Land
A Reference Guide to Researching Your Land’s History
Bob Zybach, PhD
Learn how survey notes, maps, land patents, family records, aerial photographs, soils and rainfall each add to the history of a place. A 211-acre Oregon tree farm is the example in every chapter, with 62 figures showing the records and how to use them.
Choose this book to learn the method: which records exist, where they are kept and how to read them.
First edition, October 2026. This copy: version 1.1, October 10, 2026.
NW Maps Co. · Cottage Grove, Oregon
The User’s Manual
How to Make and Read Your Own Property Report
Your Land History
A practical guide to using YourLandHistory.org, with 45 screenshots to help you follow the instructions beside your computer. It follows the website step by step, from finding your land to reading the finished report.
Choose this book for help using the website and reading its reports.
Edition 1.1, October 2026. This copy: October 10, 2026.
Choosing a format
Read online opens the book in your browser, one chapter at a time.
PDF keeps the book’s page layout, for reading on a screen or printing.
EPUB lets you change the text size on a phone, tablet or e-reader that opens EPUB files.
Using and citing the books
Proposed reuse terms, not yet adopted. You may copy and share these books for any noncommercial purpose, as long as you credit the authors and do not change them (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0). Some pictures belong to others and are not covered by these terms; Picture sources, at the back of each book, lists them.
Each book’s page gives a citation you can copy.
Corrections and additions: drdavesullivan@gmail.com. Each correction goes into the next version, and the version line shows which copy you have.
Editions of Knowing Your Land for young readers and for researchers may follow, as separate books.