This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/pR.2ADE/1184.1 Message Board Post: A few suggestions Ancestral Homesteads has plat books available for most of the counties in Alabama showing where original land grants were and gives a good description of how to read the town/range descriptions. http://www.geocities.com/ancestral_homesteads/ Also "US Land & Property Research" "course" take you through the research process . . . Lesson 3 gives some good guidelines on how to read the maps . . . http://users.arn.net/~billco/uslpr.htm Me, I had to sit down with the plat map and the "instructions" and read through them a few times and it finally "clicked" Good luck!