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Gen 301 Legal Descriptions

(This is hard to explain. If you have difficulty, please do an Internet search and find a better tutorial. Then please send me the link and I will add it here)

Systems of Property Descriptions

Metes & Bounds

The original colonies started off by describing land naming a starting point followed by a boundary description. This is known as a metes and bounds description.

A legal description is a written description that precisely locates a piece of real estate. A good legal description contains a beginning point, several “calls” to ending points and a final call ending back with the beginning point. A call contains a direction and a distance (or sometimes a boundaryi.e. a creek and distance. The standards of a good legal description are much higher today than in yesteryear.

Here is an abbreviated example:

Beg. at John Goff, Sr.; S17E 18; S17E 94; S70W 90; S15E 80; N80E 80; N9E 171; N8E 56; to beg. (Goff).

The full text version would look a lot more like this:

Beg. at a point on John Goff, Sr.’s line; running thence South 17 degrees East a distance of 18 poles; continuing thence South 17 degrees East a distance of 94 poles; running thence South 70 degrees West a distance of 90 poles; running thence South 15 degrees East a distance of 80 poles; running thence North 80 degrees East a distance of 80 poles; running thence North 9 degrees East a distance of 171 poles; running thence North 8 degrees East a distance of 56 poles; thence along Goff’s line to the point of beginning.

Today we measure distances in feet. Here are some of the most common units of measurement from days gone by.

Chain = 66 feet

Link = 1/100 of a chain = 7.92 inches

Pole = 16 ½ feet = 1/4 of a chain

Mile = 80 chains

Square mile = 6400 square chains = 640 acres

Acre = 1/10 of a square chain = 43560 square feet

Georgia Initially Used Metes and Bounds in what is the Headright Area of Georgia. Later on Georgia granted land using land lotteries wherein a settler won the land, settled on it and paid taxes. The Land Lottery area of the state is divided into Districts and then into Land Lots.

Most of the rest of the states adopted a Township System with a grid layout in Townships, Ranges and Meridians. More will be added to this outline later. In the mean time, please refer to the Family Search Research Wiki.

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