Re: Virginia Colonial Patents
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In reply to:
Re: Virginia Colonial Patents
Margaret McCleskey 8/01/01
Thanks.The website address was correct in the neighboring post, but I left out the "rr" in this post.It should have been http://home.nc.rr.com/rwbairdhttp://home.nc.rr.com/rwbaird.
You asked about DeedMapper.DeedMapper is a program that produces plots of land parcels from their metes and bounds descriptions.By "metes and bounds" I mean descriptions like "from a red oak, north 54 degrees east 125 poles".That is typical of surveys for old patents and deeds.Several parcels can be plotted and fitted together, then placed on a map if their locations can be identified.
DeedMapper also automatically determines the acreage of each plot, which sometimes allows you to determine the general shape of the watercourse when a parcel is bounded by a stream or river.If the plotted acreage is too high, for example, it may mean that the watercourse bows inward.
It is most useful when you start with a patent or deed that includes a neighbor's corner or a common boundary line.You plot the neighbor's deed or patent and place it next to the first patent.You continue that process, adding successive patents and deeds, until you have a "neighborhood" of many parcels.Eventually, one of them will be placed on a specific spot, like the intersection of two watercourses, that provides an "anchor spot".This can be laborious, since you may end up plotting hundreds of parcels.You also need access to both patents and the original deed descriptions (not the deeds you find in abstracts, but the microfilm of the deed books).
The price tag is under $200, as I recall.You can also buy computerized USGS maps that show watercourses (without their names) and scale the plots to match the scale of the map.The maps cost $5 to $15 each depending on how many you buy at one time, and they each cover an area of about 7 miles by 7 miles, so it takes several individual maps to comprise a single county.
It's a program that is terrific for those of us who are relentlessly detail-oriented.