Dear Thanks!!: You need a grid map for Alberta in order to find the exact location this farm. I can give you some general guidance though. A section is one mile by one mile and is 640 acres 'more or less' Since your family had a quarter section, they would own 160 aces 'more or less'. The section numbers are a little strange. Take a piece of paper and draw a large square 6 inches by six inches. Now mark the one inch marks on the sides and join so that you have 36 squares each one inch by one inch. Each one of these squares represents a section i.e. 640 acres. Of course divide each small square into quarters & you have a quarter section. Now for the section numbers. Start at the section in the lower right corner and number it '1', keep numbering to your left and the last square on the bottom row is '6'. Now move to the square right above '6' in the second row & these is section '7'. Now keep numbering to the right on the second row and the last square is '12'. Again move up to the third row and this section is '13' and proceed numbering to the left. Repeat this process until you reach the upper left square which will be section '36'. Now for the range & township numbers. First of all W4 is the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. So your starting point is the corner at the SK/AB/USA border. The range numbers run west from W4 (i.e. SK/AB border) and each number covers approx six miles plus road allowances. The township numbers run north from the Canada/USA border and each number covers aprox six miles plus road allowances. Now for a rough calculation from the AB/SK/USA point of reference The distance from this point to the NW corner of township 46 range 15 would be 15 x 6 = 90 miles plus road allowances west of the AB/SK/USA corner & 46 x 6 = 276 miles plus road allowances north of AB/SK/USA corner. Now to get to the NW corner of 30-47-16-W4 you must add five miles plus road allowances to the north direction & six miles plus road allowances to the west direction Therefore the location of your family farm is approx 281 north of the USA border & approx 96 miles west of the AB/SK border. If you wish to add in the road allowances, they are 66 feet wide in Alberta. Hope this helps James Clark james.clark1@sympatico.ca SNIP SNIP SNIP > My husbands family owned "The south-east quarter of section 30, in township 47, range 16, west of the fourth meridian, in the province of Alberta in the 1920's. Where is this, how do I begin to look? > Thanks > > > ==== ALBERTA Mailing List ==== > Search ALBERTA Mailing List Archives with the > Rootsweb Mailing List Interactive Search at > http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > >