Using Landmarks

Land surveys have been made since 1621 in the colony of Virginia.  Geographic landmarks were utilized to help locate and describe each survey. [patent]  Rivers, streams, creeks, swamps, points, bays, and many other items were often included.  Understanding the location and utilization of these geographic items can be the help needed to get around some of those brick walls.

A method used for this process is shown below.  Using an index in Volume I, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623 - 66, by Nugent was used to outline the names of rivers, streams, creeks, swamps, etc., as they appear alphabetically in the index.

From left to right, it shows the names of rivers as they are indexed, with the page number that they are recorded falling below.  Dates were then placed along the left hand margin as they appear in the surveys.   This gives a rough chronology of the "rivers" as they become involved with a survey.  For example, the river named "Wiccocomocco" does not appear until 1635. [p.27]  The river "Nansamund" is involved in a survey before 1632. [p.17]  If an ancestor uses these rivers as landmarks for their patent, you can place these ancestors in an appropriate chronology.  Often, two to three years difference may break one of those brick walls.

One Squire Mile

Land grants, patents, and surveys can present special problems to the genealogist.   This is especially true when these grants have been recorded years past.  Having spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the language used during certain periods, the following chart is given to try and help.   Terms are often used which become very confusing.   Hopefully, this table might help those who, like me, get a way to convert "rods", "poles", "chains", and "links" into feet and miles.  It is based on Gunter's Chain.

In green highlight, is the number "1".  Each line represents "one" of the terms given.   Thus, "1 Chain" equals  66 feet, or 22 yards, or 4 rods.   Now the term "rod" is not often used today to mean the same that it would in 1623.   Thus, using the table, you can find that "1 rod" equals 16.5 feet or 5.5 yards.  Of course you could have divided "4 rods" into 66 feet to get 16.5 feet, but hey, who does math any more.   Thus, 1 chain, 1 link, 1 rod, 1 pole, 1 acre, and 1 mile can be determined.  Ah yes, remember that 1 squire mile equals 640 acres.

BWP(25): Gunter's Chain and The Rest of the Story

Making surveys were a major part of land settlement in the early colonial period. The methods used were standardized so that 1,000 acres would be reasonably close to 1,000 acres. By 1624 this was helped by the introduction of Gunter's Chain, which became the instrument of choice for use in Virginia, and as far as I know in every other English settlement. Its description is given in a post:

http://thejonesgenealogist.blogspot.com/2011/02/gunters-chain.html

The rest of the story is presented in a series of post that deal with the development of measurements. This all started with land use and a kernel of corn! For the rest of the story see:

http://welshgenealogy.blogspot.com

under : "Leaps and Bounds", July 22, 2011

"The Legal Acre", July 27, 2011

"Paramount", August 1, 2011

Amazing what a kernel of corn can do!