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Bearing , Distance, or Bearing and Distance
Working on a little survey here in the abyss.
Trying to locate some sort of control. Deeds tied to N ?¬ corner which is at minimum obliterated. NE Sec corner is remonumented probably close to where original was.
Most old deeds here are N, E, S and W. I’m finding distances more likely than bearings when locating the old fences. Neighbor parcel has this:
A causal inspection will show it doesn’t close. A survey from 1994 decided it had to be a rectangle and misses all the fences. Settles on one value for each of the opposite sides, 90 degree corners. I pick up the fences and such and plot it out. If the bearings are ignored the distances fit really well to the distances in the deed (couple links, where exactly do you measure to a fence corner). So I’m inclined to accept the fences as the ancestor of some original measurement (survey) for the deed and hold the line on one side (fence) against the parcel I’m working on as original and go from there. I’m missing about 4 feet going back to where I think the N ?¬ should be but there is some conflicting evidence there also.
I’ve found some other stuff down in the valley where distances seem to work good but trying to hold almost any bearing very tight will lead to chaos. Some bearings seem to be out as much a 10 degrees. My thought is they were measuring (surveying) without angle measuring equipment or the knowledge to use them. Not sure their math was all that good either. Can fit things together fairly well using the distance from field measurements and the deeds, try to hold the record bearings and rapidly degrades into a cluster. North is never astronomic north on the ground. If within a half degree consider yourself lucky. Most of the original GLO stuff is rotated from 1/2 to a whole degree or more.
Now, I’m taking a journey into hell when this doesn’t match the fictional local title keeping policies at the county and some title offices. But whatever. Show record, measured and give opinion.
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6 Replies
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I surveyed an old Deed in rods. Triangular parcel bounded on the east by a road, bounded on the west by R/R (hypotenuse), bounded on north by the short side-description went north along the road center line so many rods (about a thousand feet), distance measured along the R/W fence to northeast corner from point at R/R R-W fence fit with a couple of feet. Thence at right angles (west) so many rods to the railroad R/W. again the distance along the old fence fit within a few feet. Thing is the fence ran about 30 degrees south of west…”right angles” being about 60 degrees. A lot of DIY stuff in that block.
circa 1900 Lawyers and lay people writing Deeds.
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circa 1900 Lawyers and lay people writing Deeds.
That still alive and well around here. Lawyers don’t do it but some title companies have more than filled the void and owners very active keeping expenses under control. Surveyors mostly hired when there is some sort of requirement for a permit, lenders, subdivisions and such. If possible I tell them to use the original description for title transfer and then refer to the survey for actual boundary location. But lots of new survey descriptions found in the records also.
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Leon,
“Show record, measured and give opinion” sounds right.
The only dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s questions I have are whether the apparent age of the fence matches the date of the deed and if the deed is recent enough that someone can provide parol evidence that the fences were intended to be the property lines or fence lines of convenience.
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I am with Gene. Validate the evidence and stick a fork in it…
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You are doing what I would do. I have a number of areas like that one. Usually they fit well together once you rid yourself of thinking East means due east and north means due north. Of course all the adjoining deeds need to be considered, I guess I’m a bit lucky, often there will be an old pipe or rebar alongside a fence corner to help out.
Sounds like you got a guy to lay out the deed regardless of the evidence, that isn’t too helpful.
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If the Deed reads East XX.X chains but the evidence runs N 88?ø E then I would say the description is reasonably susceptible to the interpretation East means N 88?ø E.
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