TIP #524 BEGINING AT A WHITE OAK OR SOME KIND OF A TREE! I must admit that platting your ancestor's land in Kentucky can be downright confusing. Unlike other northern states (and likely a lot others), the old deeds in Kentucky can be confusing to read. Everything is based on trees which are no longer there, rocks, poles .... there's no way you say to even figure out what your ancestor's land looked like! Everything is based also on the nearest waterway - which might be some distance away, and neighbor's lands as the "lines" on all sides of the deed. For this tip, I want you to get a pencil, a calculator, a ruler and if possible, some graph paper. I'm going to try to teach you how to draw the plat of a pretend ancestor and then you can dig out your Kentucky deeds and try your hand. First of all - the old deeds mention poles and links, not inches and feet. So, note down on a piece of paper somewhere that 1 inch equals 126 poles. Thus, if we divide the poles shown in the description of the land by 126, we know how long to draw each side. We are most familiar likely with what is known as 15 minute maps which mean that 1 mile equals 1 inch. (Some other maps use a 7.5 minute map which means 1 cm equals .25 km. ) On a 7.5 minute map we can convert 1 inch to equal 320 poles. Don't get confused now, it'll all work out! On your graph paper draw an arrow off in the corner pointing north (always pointing at the top of the map). Jot down the scale you're using and we'll stick with the 15 minute map. Draw an arrow showing the direction you're going. And along the lines you'll be drawing write the call. The call? What's that? Let's take a minute to learn some terns that aren't in our vocabulary unless we use them daily. beg means beginning - where we're going to start Call means the line or the boundary cor means corner fk means a fork ln means line - the path we'll be following p means pole/perch, rods - all are equal to 16.5 feet rd means road (not too many of these in the earliest days!) Since a lot is based on trees, I think you can figure out their abbreviations such hick for hickory, wo or w/o for white oak, ro or r/o for read oak; most of the times the type of tree is written out or abbreviated enough to be recognizable. But, their spellings are varied! And, as a little refresher of measurements ... An acre is 160 square rods, 43,560 square feet or 1/640 square mile A chain, with which they measured, is a constant 80 chains for each mile. Each chain is 66 feet long and has 100 links. A degree - back to high school math, is 1/360th of the distance around a circle. A link was 1/100th of a chain (see above) and was 7.92 inches or 25 links or 1 rod long. Metes and bounds is the way the survey was taken with the measurements being the metes and the Boundary markers being the bounds. Stick with me and you might print these definitions off so you can refer to them later! Now let's look at Samuel Stickinthemud's deed. See if you can work with me through this. Samuel Stickinthemud lived in Swampland County (you know I'm making this up I hope!) The property is shown "on Stinky Creek" and here is the description of the land: Beginning on a read oak. Thence due west 120 poles to a white oak and a dying elm Thence due north 160 poles to a hickory Thence north 80 degrees east, 300 poles to a poplar Thence due south 200 poles to a marked rock Thence South 65 degrees west 160 poles to 2 scrub brush trees on the bank of a pond Thence north 60 poles to the beginning. You've marked a starting point somewhere on the paper so we'll begin right on that dot which you have labeled "red oak" Step 1 - due west 120 poles to a white oak and dying elm. Take that 120 poles and divide by 126 (refer back to the paragraph "First of all..." and that will give us .95 inches. Lay your ruler on the paper and draw a line straight west going approximately .95 inches. That line ends on a white oak and dying elm, draw a dot at the end of the line you've just drawn and write in beside it "white oak and dying elm". Step 2 - due north 160 poles to a hickory. Divide the 160 by that good old 126 and that will give you 1.27 inches. Lay your ruler at the point you marked in step #1 and extend the line north 1.27 inches. At the end of the line write to the side "hickory". Step 3 - north 80 degrees east, 300 poles to a poplar. Zero degree always means due north and south. So this is 80 degrees towards the east of north and south. Divide the 300 poles by 126 giving you 2.38 inches slightly north east (you can use a compass or other device to make this exactly 80 degrees off of north). At your dot at the end of this line indicate "poplar" Step 4 - South 200 poles to a marked rock. Divide 200 by 1.26 giving you 1.59 inches. From your last point draw a line 1.59 inches due south and at the end of this line put a dot and mark to the side "marked rock." Step 5 - South 65 degrees west 160 poles to the scrub brushes at the bank of a pond. Again, from your last line's ending angle south approximately 65 degrees and how long will be it? Yes 160 divided by 126 and this line will be 1.27 inches long. Step 6 - north 60 poles to the beginning. I think you're ahead of me now, 60 divided by 1.26 indicates .48 inches and you hopefully will be close to the beginning. Now - look at your deed again and see if property lines are mentioned. If for example on step 2 it mentions John Jumpinghigh's line being there, write his name above that line. Fill in as many names as you can. It may help you physically locate the land on a topo map. Now - there are glitches along the way. Due to surveying errors (or inability to survey part of the property due to physical obstacles) some property lines won't close up or match. Some land plats come out looking very strange indeed. You're blessed if the land comes up to a river or some well known landscape feature which may still exist today. This is one reason that the county surveyor had to go out and re-survey many of the plats (also called processioneering): the trees had died or been cut down; a rock moved or the neighbor thought that good old Sam was moving in on his property. At the death of a land owner lands had to be re-surveyed also to distribute equally to the heirs (if so noted in the will) so that everyone had about the same amount of land, all had access to the waterway or roads. This is just a simple overview of platting; I know there are software programs that will do this in a jiffy, but for those of us who do not have these programs, it's fun to learn how to do it ourselves. Tracing your ancestor's property is complicated as land was divided up so many times. The ancestor might have started out with 3,000 acres and over his life, gave some to his children, sold part of it, forgot to record some of it ... never mentioned houses most times . But the only way to tackle it is to start at the beginning and plat it out. It makes a lovely addition to your family history to include a plat map. Many times, we have to work backward starting with the current owner and it's description. Find out who they bought the land from. Find that deed in the deed book and find out who they bought it from and work backwards as far as you can. Sometimes the researcher can go back several generations - sometimes they'll get stuck because of all the divisions of the land. Good luck! (c) Copyright 20 January 2005, Sandra K. Gorin Colonel Sandi Gorin SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/