I think I should have been a little more explanitory in my hunt for the plat maps/books. First of all, to the best of my knowledge, a plat map is a map that's usually held by the local court house that has markings on it of land ownership for businesses, government, personal etc. I believe the map has specifics of property lines and special features like lakes, rivers, trees, houses, buildings etc. I might be wrong, as I've never actually seen a plat map. But this is what I've been told. The plat maps are put into a plat book and held with the county court house. Now, the plat maps I am looking for were maps from back in the late 1800s for Kanawha County. To start with, I was looking for a plat map that was mentioned in a deed of my g-g-grandfather's property deed. Here's what it says: "...the south east quarter of Lot No 28 as shown on the Plat of said land laying off the bottom into streets and lots, made out by A. P. Sinnett, and recorded in the said [Kanawha County] clerk's office, to which plat reference is here made..." The land deed was dated 16 Feb 1889. For starters, I'd like to find this particular plat map and eventually, I'll want to find other plat maps from other property that my ancestors owned from 1874 to present. I guess my question would have been better stated if I'd asked for someone to help me find a plat map from this time era. I suppose I could write to the Kanawha Co. clerk's office and ask them if they have plat maps or a plat book from 1889 that I might be able to get a copy from. But I know how notorious the Kanawha clerk's office can be for taking quite a while to fill genealogy mail requests and I was hoping that someone on this list might have tried to find such maps previously and would be able to steer me in the right direction as to exactly how to get copies of these maps. Has anyone had any experience with finding plat maps from the late 1880s? Are they only kept at clerk's office or does the WV Archives have copies on microfilm. I couldn't find them on microfilm through the LDS. -- Cara Showers Anchorage, Alaska [email protected]