As a way of introduction for a person new to the forum - I am a longtime amateur genealogist, having traced family lines of the Hampshire/Mineral/Hardy/Grant County, Virginia/West Virginia for over 50 years. Members of my several WV family lines have been in present-day WV since at least 1785. As a person who grew up west of the Mississippi River and familiar with section/township/range localities, I continue to struggle with locating metes and bounds surveys on the ground. I would particularly like to locate exactly where one of my forebear's properties were located. Hopefully, there might be some trace of an old family cemetery still at the location. Through the years, I have made many trips to West Virginia in search of courthouse records, family graveyards, old home sites, etc. and have accumulated two file cabinets full of information. One of my ancestors was Joseph McNamarrow, my great-great-great-greatgrandfather, and the location of his land has long eluded me.
Joseph McNamarrow made his will on 1 Jan 1800 and it was recorded at the Hardy County courthouse on 12 Feb 1800.
Joseph McNamarrow/McNemar received a Northern Neck grant of 106 acres, dated 23 February 1792 and based on a 23 January 1786 survey [as shown by the grant and plat available from the Library of Virginia digital archives]. The land is described as being in the County of Hampshire [but now located in Hardy County, which was split from Hampshire on 1 February 1786] on Town Fort Run, a drain of the South Branch. This is apparently a part of the 126-acre tract of land sold by his widow to James Machir in 1805. Another Northern Neck grant of 226 acres was made to Joseph McNemar/McNamarrow "in Hardy County adjacent his own land and the South Branch Mannor" and witnessed by Daniel McNeil and Thomas Wheeler, 6 Nov 1800. The presence of McNeil and Wheeler as witnesses probably places the land in the Town Fort Run vicinity somewhere east of Moorefield.
The apparent location of Joseph McNamarrow's land fits with the tax lists for 1782/84, as provided in Judy's "History of Hardy and Grant Counties". Joseph McNamarr is included in the list of Abraham Hite, whose district is thought to include the area north of Moorefield [county seat of Hardy County] to the area known locally as the trough ( http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvhardy/taxlist.htm - printed 17 Dec 1998).
Can someone familiar with West Virginia surveys tell me how to locate the two tracts of land once owned by Joseph McNamarrow/McNemar? Can they be located on a USGS topo map?
Incidentally, West Virginia surveyors familiar with the Hardy/Grant county area may be familiar with the work of surveyor David Gibson "D.G." Martin (1863-1937). He was a prominent surveyor in that area over a period of many years. I am related to him through several different family lines.
Thanks to anyone who might help me find the answer to my question.
A surveyor named "Galtjo Geertsema" in Martnsburg, WV has plotted almost all of the original grants in the Eastern Panhandle and somewhat further west on USGS quad sheets. You might try him. He's in the phone book.
Thanks so much for getting back with me so quickly. I will contact him and see what he can tell me.
David Gibson "D.G." Martin (1863-1937)
David Gibson, my great great grandfather FYI http://biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?id_nbr=4449
Cheers
Derek
David Gibson "D.G." Martin (1863-1937)
Thanks for your reply...... but it is the wrong David Gibson "D.G." Martin. My relative was born in Ohio in 1863 but later returned to West Virginia with his family to the area where his mother grew up. He died at Antioch, Mineral County, WV in 1937........ but he too was a longtime surveyor in a several county area of WV.