Greetings All, It's good to see that folks who are primarily interested in genealogy are beginning to use research methods that archaeologists have found effective - platting old land boundary descriptions. There are computer programs that will do this, but they cannot magically create undescribed boundary lines. If you plat enough adjoining boundaries, however, you can fit them onto USGS quadrangles which show topography. This allows you to make maximum use of otherwise vague descriptions, such as _from the head of the ravine_, _over the swamp_, and so forth. Several years ago I published an article about this, including a conversion table for the old compass bearings and distance measurements. Recently I posted an updated version on VFAR's web site, URL below. For big jobs, such as platting whole counties, now being done by Dennis Hudgins, I'm told Deed Mapper is the program of choice. But for a few tracts, the pencil, scale, and protractor method is still the most efficient, and by far the least expensive! Good Hunting! -- Eve S. Gregory, Director Virginia Foundation for Archaeological Research, Inc. http://home.earthlink.net/~vfar1/ Visit my home page for history and genealogy links! http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~eve368g/ ------------------------------------------- Subject:[VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Re: land that traces back to nowhere From:"Frances Cullom Harper" <fharper@triad.rr.com> Date:Wed, 20 Jun 2001 21:08:20 -0400 To:VA-SOUTHSIDE-L@rootsweb.com <snip> > In working with these patents, I was also able to determine where a couple > of creeks were located that can't be found labeled on any map, not even the > 1870 map of Mecklenburg. On the 1870 map (section 8 > http://www.rootsweb.com/~vameckle/8sect.htm ), Eagles Nest Creek is the > creek east of Smith Creek with a fork at the head and a branch halfway down. > Robert Bowen, Drury Bowen, William Bowen, and George Vaughan owned land on > this creek. George Vaughan held another tract father south in the branches > of Taylor's Creek. The next creek east of Eagles Nest (the 1870 map cut it > off but you can find it if you go to Mapblast) was called Island Creek. John > Clack patented all the land between Eagles Nest and Island Creek north of > the branch in Eagles Nest and his line (originally Henry's line) which > stretched from the head of the branch SW to Island Creek. This was where > part of Robert Bowen's land and all of Edward Henry's land was located. East > of that was the land first granted to John Roberts and later repatented by > William Robertson. I don't know if William descended from John or if the > name was in fact Roberts of Robertson. Robert Bowen's 1768 patent (he'd held > the land since at least 1753) was on the west side of Eagles Nest with > William Dobyns' 1755 patent west of Bowen's. The Dobyns' land was sold to > John Harper. You'll see Harper's Road and Harper's Old Bridge on the 1870 > map, but the Harper land extended east beyond Smith Creek and adjoined the > Bowen land. > > If anyone is working on the early Vaughans, Maclins, and Wynns of Brunswick > Co, I have run across some records that might tie those families together > with a little more work. They're not my ancestors, but what I've found might > be helpful to anyone working with those families. You can find that info at > http://members.nbci.com/fcharper/vaughan.html > > Just out of curiosity - has anyone ever used any software for drawing up > tracts of land from deed/patent descriptions? I used a ruler and protractor > to try to draw it all to scale, but I found it really frustrating when the > descriptions included phrases like "down the creek as it meanders to the > beginning". How far was that? Where was that creek? Which way did it go? > It's not on any map. Oh, no! Not to a river where the line meanders down > that some indefinite distance too! How would software cope with something > like that? Can it use the estimated acres and the other surveyed lines to > mathematically estimate how long those vague meandering lines should be? I > had hoped to draw up these grants as graphics, but the graphics programs I > have don't seem to show angle measurements or the length of diagonal lines. > So I had to drop back to the old ruler and protractor method. > [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Lunenburg County.eml