Platting Land

Drawing (platting) the boundaries of a land parcel can offer additional insights to the land record. The term “platting” generally refers to property that is described in metes and bounds. The term “graphing” is more applicable to rectangular survey (township and range).

Benefits

Determine if the same amount of land was sold as was purchased. If not, this is a clue as to other records of acquisition or subdivision.


 * 1) Distinguish same name individuals in the same county.
 * 2) Identify common neighbors—which might lead to other records to consider.

Plotting Land Descriptions by Hand
 * Land Platting Made Easy - Thoughtco

Commercial platting software
 * Deed-Chek by Emerald Data, Inc.
 * DeedMapper by Direct Line Software
 * Deed Plotter by Greenbrier Graphics
 * Map Draw by Informatik, Inc.
 * Muncy's Plat Pronto by B.W. Muncy, Inc.
 * platplotter - free

Platting State Lands on Maps
 * DeedMapper by Direct Line Software
 * Metes and Bounds - Metes and Bounds Software for Mac OS X, Windows and iOS
 * MapRight - Plotting metes and bounds
 * Metes, Bounds & Meanders
 * Definitions of many words used for metes and bounds surveying is at http://genealogy.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-metesandbounds.htm

For additional information

E. Wade Hone, Land and Property Research in the United States (Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, Inc., 1997), has a section on platting metes and bounds (pages 89-96) and a section on graphing township, range, and section (pages 173-176).

Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, “Land Records,” in Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, eds. The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, 3rd ed. (Provo, Utah: Ancestry, 2006), includes a sidebar, "Creating a Plat," by Mary McCampbell Bell, CG, p. 438.