1 - I wholeheartedly support the program DEEDMAPPER.  It has a few
eccentricities but once you work with it a while, you will get the hang of
it.  I have used it with 20th century maps.

2 - Tom Bannister @ U of Rochester is a wizard when it comes to plotting old
land patents, with or without GPS.  Some of his maps of what is now Nelson
County are available on line through the Univeristy of Virginia Special
Collections.

3 - Somebody @ Georgia Tech has done considerable work with GPS and Civil
War maps, and modern maps -- plotted a lot in and around Atlanta, and I
think a couple of years ago had a contract with one of the Virginia
Battlefields -- perhaps Chancelorsville.

Randy Cabell


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bibb C. Edwards" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 9:56 PM
Subject: Magnetic North / GIS


> I am attempting to retrace a parcel boundary described in a 1701 land
> patent in what is now King William County on a modern USGS map.
>
> Would anyone know : 1) whether true North or magnetic North would
> have been used in the patent description, and 2) how many degrees of
> declination between true north and magnetic north was observed in the
> tidewater in 1701?
>
> I would also like to correspond with anyone - privately is probably
> better - who has had experience with this kind of project. Needless
> to say, so far I am having some problems getting the polygon to
> close. With 2 of the 13 reaches lacking a stated distance maybe I
> should not be too surprised. But I am curious just how accurate these
> 300 year-old patent descriptions have generally proven to be.
>
> I have also been trying to map the parcel using Geographic
> Information System (GIS) software (ArcView) over an orthophoto of the
> area in question. That leads to a related question. Are GIS systems
> now being used in professional historical research? They seem to me
> to be potentially very valuable in storing, presenting and sharing
> spatial data.
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Bibb Edwards
> --
>
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