Plat Maps

In mid-December, 2004, Jerry Sullivan contacted me regarding work that he had done on analyzing land grants and Louisa County surveys, and was looking for anyone that would possibly want to use his work.  He had been gleaning the metes and bounds from hundreds of documents and entering them into the DeedMapper program (produced by Direct Line Software). to produce plat maps of the various properties.  Since I had been doing the same type of thing for several years with the plats for my ancestors in Louisa, and because I am always looking for content to add to the Louisa site, I accepted Jerry's kind offer.  Since it will soon be a year since I received the information, I thought I better get started!

I have downloaded the data file used by DeedMapper and have managed to create an index of the people, streams, roads, etc. This information can be viewed at:  Index of Names in Louisa County Plats

I have created one image of the entire county that shows the scope of what plats have been analyzed.  Click here to see the Image of Louisa County Plats   

I have created a new map, containing much more detail,  of the creeks in Louisa County. Click here to view the Combined Creek Map,   which will allow you to zoom in to a larger display.

As time permits I will attempt to produce more images of individual plats and also have them linked to the index of names.  Since there are 750+ plats <groan>, that may be a task that I rethink.  I know there are cases where one large plat is broken into several smaller ones, so I may just print the larger one.  In the short term, you can click here to see the List of Plat Images that I have started with (VERY short list).

At some point I will attempt to create an index of place names and creek names that can be linked to the individual maps.

 

The header in the Louisa data file that can be downloaded from Direct Line Software contains the following information that helps explain the source of the document.

 Patent and survey abstracts and placements by Jerry Sullivan
 Some additional patent abstracts by Dennis Hudgins and Tom Bannister
 Edited by Steve Broyles

 Notes from Jerry Sullivan:
 "Much help was obtained from the Louisa County Web Site @ trevilians.com  and extremely helpful was the index and abstracts of deeds provided there  by Janice L. Abercrombie.
 There is a "super-abundance" of patents for Louisa & Hanover. The usual  ability to follow deeds and splits of property is lacking in some instances.  Some of the larger properties in Louisa were subdivided or sold off with no intervening records to tell what went where."

 This file, its contents, and its corresponding deed map are provided on an "as is" basis.

 There are numerous opportunities for errors in the original patents, the abstracting process, and the parcel placement. Questions about accuracy can  be resolved by downloading and examining the original patents or grants from the VA State Library web site.

 History
 =======
 Land in present day Louisa Co. traces its history as follows:

 1634 - York Co. created
 1654 - New Kent was created out of James City and York
=>1718 - First placed patent in modern Louisa Co.
 1720 - Hanover was created out of New Kent
 1742 - Louisa was formed out of Hanover

 Abbreviations
 =============
 Louisa Surveyors Book ==> LSB
 Virginia Patent Book ==> VAPB
 Virginia Land Grants ==> VALG
 Louisa Deed Book ==> Louisa
 Louisa Surveyors Book Vol I ==> LSB
 Louisa Surveyors Book Vol II ==> LSB II (page numbers are mostly missing)