Mapping Ancestral LandsResearchers in local history and genealogy know the need for maps and soon learn that everything one needs to know is not on any single map. The usual sources for maps are, of course, atlases, text books, and the vast quantity of road maps — the mainstay of the American tourist — published by gasoline companies and easily obtainable in service stations. Most states have available good county maps which may be purchased for a small fee and are invaluable in helping the researcher locate the river his ancestor traveled or the creek or pond on which one’s forebearers first settled and took a land patent many decades ago. Courthouse plat books contain detailed descriptions of tracts, subdivisions, and whole towns. Prior to the use of plat books early North Carolina tract maps were drawn in the deed book, separate plats were sometimes glued into the deed book or the clerk copying the document into the public record also copied the accompanying map with varying degrees of accuracy and skill. Other courthouse sources of maps are suits regarding land disputes and tax maps. In addition, maps may be found (and this is by no means a complete list) in archival, college, and university holdings, online, in family papers, and even in flea markets. Another excellent source of maps for the researcher in North Carolina land records is the collection of thousands of plats in the Secretary of State’s original land papers; some of the tract maps dating to the mid-1700s and held in a huge collection by the North Carolina State Archives, in Raleigh. When no suitable map (or no map at all) is available to the researcher, he or she can make one to complete satisfaction by using a few simple supplies — a protractor, a pencil, graph paper, and an engineer’s ruler — and by following a few simple rules. It must be assumed that the research can reads the land descriptions with no trouble. Reading land descriptions comes with practice. One should know at least the basics of protractor use, a skill easily acquired from a high school math book. The simplest scale is let 1” = 100 poles. Distance in poles is then converted to the scale simply by moving the decimal point two places to the left, thus 320 poles becomes 3.2 inches, 500 poles is 5.00 inches, and so forth. Once the researcher has delineated his ancestor’s land, he or she should diagram the in the same way adjoining land holders, fitting them together jigsaw puzzle fashion until a settlement is built on several thousand acres. Extreme care should be taken to label each river, pond, creek, or any other natural barrier and thereby facilitate overlaying and acreage on an aerial photograph of the region. Aerial photograph scale (1” = 1667’) works quite nicely with tracts drawn to the scale of 100 poles to the inch. The researcher can reap many benefits by making maps and determine the exact location of ancestral lands — which makes a fine illustration for a family history — the names and location of the neighbors and in-laws, as well as the location of ferries, cemeteries, stores, church, and the like. |
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