Deed Platting: Mapping Your Ancestor's Land from the Deed

How to turn a metes-and-bounds deed description into a map, fit neighbors' tracts together, and use the result to separate men of the same name and find the land today.

4 min read

In the original colonies and the other state-land states, land was described by "metes and bounds": a series of compass directions and distances around the edges of the tract, often tied to trees, streams and neighbors' lines. Turning that description into a drawing, called platting, is one of the most powerful advanced techniques in genealogy. A plat shows you exactly where your ancestor lived, who his neighbors really were, and how a family's land passed from one generation to the next.

Why plat a deed?

• To identify neighbors. Deeds name adjoining landowners, who were often relatives, in-laws and fellow church members. See The FAN Club.
• To separate men of the same name. Two John Millers in one county can often be told apart by where their land was.
• To trace inheritance. When a father's tract is later split into pieces owned by several younger men, you may have found his sons and sons-in-law, even if no will survives.
• To find the land today. A plat matched to streams and roads can show you where to walk the land, look for a family cemetery, or compare with modern maps.

Reading a metes-and-bounds description

A typical description reads like this:

Beginning at a white oak on the north side of Beaver Creek, corner to John Smith, thence N 45 E 120 poles to a red oak, thence S 60 E 80 poles to a pointer, thence S 20 W 140 poles to a stake on the creek, thence up the creek as it meanders to the beginning, containing 100 acres more or less.

Each "call" has three parts:

• A bearing: "N 45 E" means start facing north and turn 45 degrees toward the east. "S 20 W" means start facing south and turn 20 degrees toward the west. Bearings are never more than 90 degrees from north or south.
• A distance: usually in poles or chains.
• A marker: a tree, a stone, a stake, a stream, or a neighbor's corner.

Old units of measure

• Pole, rod or perch: 16.5 feet (the same unit under three names)
• Chain: 66 feet, or 4 poles
• Link: 1/100 of a chain, or 7.92 inches
• Acre: 160 square poles, or 10 square chains

How to plat by hand

You need graph paper, a protractor, a ruler and a sharp pencil.

1. Abstract the calls. Write each bearing and distance on its own line, with the marker and any neighbor named.
2. Choose a scale. For example, one small square equals 10 poles.
3. Mark the beginning point and draw a north line through it.
4. Draw each call: place the protractor on the current point, measure the angle from north or south toward east or west, and draw a line of the scaled distance. Move to the end and repeat.
5. Check the closure. The last line should bring you back near the beginning. A small gap is normal, since early surveyors were working in woods with simple instruments. A large gap usually means a misread call, a copying error in the deed book, or a call "up the creek" that follows a winding stream.
6. Label everything: markers, streams, neighbors' names on the sides they bordered, and the deed's date and book and page.

Software makes this faster and more precise. Several genealogy and surveying programs, including free online tract plotters, let you type in the calls and draw the plat automatically, check its acreage, and overlay several tracts together.

Fitting the puzzle together

A single plat is useful. A neighborhood of plats is transformative. Plat your ancestor's land, then plat every adjoining tract named in the deeds, and fit them together by their shared corners and lines, like puzzle pieces. As the picture grows, you'll see:

• Which families had lived next to each other for generations
• Original large grants that were later divided among heirs
• Where a road, mill, church or cemetery sat in relation to the family

Start with deeds, but also plat land grants and patents, surveys, and divisions of estates, which often include their own drawn plats of each heir's share.

Matching the plat to the modern landscape

Streams change little over two centuries, so they're your best guide. Compare your plat to a USGS topographic map (free online), looking for creek bends and branches that match the shape of your tract. Old county maps, historic mill and church locations, and the land's position relative to other tracts can help you narrow it down. Keep in mind that compass bearings were magnetic, and magnetic north has shifted over time, so an old plat may need rotating a few degrees to fit.

Once you've placed the land, check modern property maps (many counties have free online GIS maps) to see who owns it today, and always ask permission before visiting private land or a family cemetery on it.

Federal-land states are easier

In the 30 federal-land (public-land) states, land was surveyed before sale into a grid of townships, ranges and sections. A legal description like "the NE 1/4 of Section 12, Township 4 North, Range 3 West" can be placed on a map directly, without platting. The free BLM General Land Office Records site will even show the location of a federal land patent. See Land Records.