Power Platting – Technology Tools to Create Pictures from Property Descriptions

Topographic maps and soil maps should help us identify a community, including neighbors, ferries, mills, cemeteries, historic houses, and many other landmarks. By using a combination of resources, the picture of this community will be more visible and more clearly understood.

Legalese. Boilerplate. Obsolete laws. Ancestral idiosyncrasies. The documents our ancestors created are full of such traps. This session uses two typical documents from different regions to illustrate, line by line, how to sort chaff from wheat, interpret deceptive language, and develop clues.

Land Plats of an ancestor’s land will likely include his surrounding neighbors. With a closer examination, we might gain an understanding of their lives and place them with their community and local events.

This session provides a brief overview of metes and bounds land descriptions seen in deeds, mortgages, patents, grants, and other land documents. The land descriptions are an essential part of land research. This presentation discusses metes and bounds land descriptions and how the metes and bounds can solve genealogical problems.

This case study traces a piece of property for two hundred years, from the Native Americans to the Dutch, to the English, and through fourteen members of the Hicks family over five generations. Transfer of title occurs through various instruments, including patents, unrecorded deeds, inheritance, escheatment, private laws, entails, deeds of lease and release, life estates, and coverture. Tracing the lineage of the property elucidates family relationships that were otherwise forgotten. This class is presented live at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City as part of the Joy Reisinger Memorial Lecture Series and is being broadcasted by Legacy Family Tree Webinars.

Genealogical research involves identifying ancestors, linking them to family members, and then connecting them to the previous generation: sons and daughters to fathers and mothers. As our research moves back in time, particularly once we’ve gotten to the 19th century, connecting one generation to the previous generation becomes more difficult. Vital records expressly stating a parent-child relationship are rare. Consequently, to establish kinship we must broaden our research approach. Using case studies, Teri will demonstrate how to use probate and property records to identify family members and connect them to their ancestors.

Canadian land records contain valuable genealogy information but can be tricky to find. This practical presentation will give you instructions for finding these records. Using case studies, you’ll learn where to look for land records in Canada, the intricacies in finding them, and what information they may contain.

This presentation will suggest strategies to correlate large amounts of information often developed in urban research, with a significant emphasis on the use of cartographic resources. Generally, researchers of urban settings have an abundance of sources to consider. Many times, the challenge is to connect and analyze multiple, even overwhelming, amounts of information. A variety of resources will be discussed, especially, cadastral maps (land ownership), Sanborn fire insurance maps and city directories.

Since the early days of British settlement in Australia, land has been considered to be one of its greatest assets. Until 1831, some settlers received large grants of land while others were entitled to only 30 acres, plus an additional 20 acres if married and 10 acres for each child. Over the next seventy years, the colonies developed their own land allocation schemes, each devised for a specific purpose. This presentation will highlight the records which relate to Crown Land, pastoral runs, land selection, occupation records, land orders and land ownership.