GeneaBabble

I spent several years working for a land surveyor. During that time I learned a lot about land records and applied this knowledge to my own genealogical research. Using a combination of atlases, census data and local histories I was able to track down where my great-great-great-great grandfather lived from about 1815-1850. I was also able to find out where his sons had settled. This would have been near impossible without the atlas book (Mercer County, PA - 1873.) I have also discovered many other facts about where my ancestors lived and how they moved around the country.

Land records are often the one missing piece of information that will bring everything together. Other times, however, they are almost useless. They are - just like census, military, marriage records, etc. - just another tool to aid us in our search for our ancestors. I think they are often overlooked, though, because they can be difficult to understand and hard to find.

I will be spending a lot of time discussing land records on this site - from old deeds and atlases to modern tools such as GIS and Google Earth. My hope is to help people understand how to use these records and tools in their research. I will discuss topics such as types of deeds, the Public Land Survey System (and other survey systems), GIS, migration mapping, etc. I hope you will find them useful.