Oh finally getting more time in deed research and going through some prep for an ALTA survey. This is what I have been yearning for a while. Have an adjoiner which is a 1941 subdivision that was a take from the subject property. As I organized and placed deeds and plats from many surrounding parcels and began to work up the deeds and make notes on things like takes and chain of title I came across a typo that kicked my rear today.
Mind you I am poor in CAD so very slow. As I ran the boundary out on a very simpl sub division as I cam around to the front of many lots and closed everything out well it didn’t close. I figured it was me doing something dumb in cad. So I grabbed my hp and ran around it and closed the same amount. I said well this is a hand drawn plat so let’s approach it differently. I began placing all the small lots in and still saw the same error. I dug through all the research and found the original plat all spotty and harder to read. I guess the county had basically re done the plat and attached it in with the original. As a way for someone to be able to read it more clearly. As I fought YouTube trying to make cad rotate and align different lots I took a step back and just looked and said well I am confident there is no bust even though the original didn’t scan well my gut tells me I am either missing something or doing something dumb. So I break out my pocket scale and laid it out on graph paper started laying in the lots and scaled around checking my distance. Well low and behold I found the bust. So I zoomed in and saw where the lots south of the road had same dimensions and a long distance that was identical to my lot on the clear plat. Looked at the original and saw exactly what had happened. They copied the wrong distance which was exactly 5 ft different and bam everything fell into place. Overall in 1941 they did it right for sure. I checked everything and all lots fit calls within a couple hundreths at most from degrees and minutes for all bearings. All interior lots except end were to the even foot. Man this is what gets me going every morning. A cup of coffee and reading through these deeds and old plats. The farthest back the original property goes I have found is 1888. Then everything has pretty much re state’s everything exactly besides some takes was 1916. Tomorrow I will tackle cad again and keep learning I reckon.
It is frustrating, yet comforting, that others make mistakes, too. Finding something like what you found is good education. Your first attempt when using data from others may be their fault.
A classic example I found was a line having a bearing of something like South 00 degrees 04 minutes West on the plat. There were more than a dozen sides to the plat. By reading the taking document I found it read South 00 degrees 04 minutes East.
One closed and one didn't. It was to the east, not to the west as labeled on the plat.
It is great when you actually find the problem in a misclosure and not just general stupidity or bad math. I had one that went to court and about 30 years ago, a surveyor used the wrong quadrant on part of his plat which caused misclosure by about 6 feet. I finally discovered the problem with his math (no bearings on original plat) and tried to explain that to the judge and her eyes glazed over. I don't think she ever understood what the problem really was and believed that I was just blowing smoke up her skirt like most of the folks that come into her courtroom. I was still glad to have found the origin of the problem.
Yeah learning this stuff is exactly that. Frustrating but comforting. Hopefully I will continue to learn all of this. One thing for sure is someone is paying me to have this much fun.
Yeah at my last place of work I was doing lots of map checks. On plats about to be signed. By others. That whole wrong quadrant thing can get tricky real quick on a short line from a very jagged type parcel especially when you have somewhat compensating errors.
I have one like you describe no bearing’s. Luckily a adjoiner has a bearing and such. But it’s parallel l lines just not 90 degrees. So I am having fun for sure. Much different than positioning satellites or computing URE lol.
Had one once by a notoriously poor surveyor. I was following his description, word for word, and a four-sided small tract would not close. Bearings were north, west, south, east. Found his description for the tract on the other side of an adjoining tract and discovered that when he north or south he meant parallel with the west section line, not perpendicular to the north section line.
Wait till Mr. CADSURVEYOR shows up and says...North is North and East is East.
I always ask which North. Assumes Geodetic Astronomic Grid Then often get the deer in headlights look along with there is only one north up. lol.
Maybe he was rich not poor. Or just having a bad day. I know one that always pushes the blame down the line. I didn’t do that my cad tech did. Responsibility is a new concept now days.
