Interesting, thanks. I'm forwarding this to some other NC county lists from the area. -Mark Murphy Paul Buckley wrote: > List, > > At tonight's Olde Mecklenburg Genealogical Society meeting, our speaker was > from the State Archives in Raleigh. His topic was "Land Grants". > > His explanation of "chain carrier" and "assistant chain carrier" is: > > 1) Chain carriers were in effect "witnesses" to the survey. > 2) They were not paid, or "official", or required. > 3) The age of majority during the land grant period often changed so that > some chain carriers were as young as 16 > 4)Often, chain carriers were "interested parties" to the survey. i.e. > relatives or neighbors of the grantee. > 5) Not all land grant surveys had chain carriers. > > It was pointed out that the "chain carrier", if listed on a land grant, is > important to genealogists because they were often relatives, neighbors, or > in-laws of the grantee. Often a grantee served as chain carrier for his > neighbor or relative for their survey...a reciprocal arrangement. > > Hope this helps y'all. It answered some of my questions. > > Regards, > > Paul Buckley > > ==== NCGRANVI Mailing List ==== > Granville County List Administrator > Debra McCann - [email protected] > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 > Source for Family History Online. Go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/subscribe/subscribetrial1y.asp?sourcecode=F11HB