I was going through some family history when I stumbled across an article written in a newspaper 120 years ago that includes a history of my ancestors.

It’s consistent with more contemporary sources and gets most details right as far as I can tell but it includes a paragraph indicating that my family had a 10,000 acre farm or estate on the island of Manhattan prior to the war of independence, and as my family were Union Loyalists, the land was confiscated after the war and my family fled to Canada.

http://www.sfredheritage.on.ca/Ruttans.htm

There are other mentions in some fairly obscure family histories of united empire loyalists that my family had land in Manhattan but no where else does it mention the amount. 10,000 acres would be 80% of the island, more or less. This seems very high, but doe quick googling indicates that the population of New York City was 25,000 in 1776 so it’s not outside the realm of possibility.

My guess is this is probably an exaggeration but it piqued my curiosity, how would I go about finding out if my family had a large estate in what is now Manhattan that was confiscated after the civil war?

(Next stop r/legaladvice, to see if the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding Oklahoma territory sets a usable precedent to get Manhattan returned to the family. s/)