Land Deeds as often overlooked sources

I have only been doing genealogy research for about a year and a half. But i also spend 20 hours or more a week on my research. I have become obsessed with genealogy like so many others who get the bug. I am constantly reading books, blogs, forums, etc to increase my knowledge. And one area of sources that i find is often overlooked or under appreciated is the land deed.

I have made several trips from Atlanta, GA to Johnstown, PA to get my hands on lots of documents and among some of the most interesting and helpful to me have been land deeds. I have actually been able to use them to determine where family land was 200 years ago. Which has helped me to narrow down some possible burial sites for some of my relatives. A lot of people in the early 1800's through the mid to late 1800's were buried on their family farm or possibly a family cemetery located on a relatives land. So my plan of attack on trying to locate graves of missing relatives from the early 1800's that are not located in any nearby cemeteries is to pinpoint their land and go out and try and find any type of cemetery or graves. Don't know if it will yield any results but I think it's not a bad way to narrow down possible burial locations based on an ancestor's farm or home.

I have also found mention of original land patents and grants from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the late 1700's mentioned in some of the land deeds. With this information, i was able to search the Pennsylvania land patent books and find the original survey of the tract of land that was sold to my ancestor. Then using this survey, i looked up the surveys of adjacent properties in the State patent books to piece several surveys together that show modern day points of reference, such as a street or mountain, that I used to find the exact location of the land today.

There are several survey programs available today that can convert the old use of "poles" or "perches" as units of measurement, and plot the property lines for you. Once you have some point of reference, some of the programs have the ability to overlay the property lines on maps for you or even google earth images.

Also i have found some deeds mention several family members including siblings and children. A lot of the time I have found that a father "sold" land to one of their children. Something this might be a daughter who might be married and lists her husbands name as well as her married name.

Just though I would see if I could get a topic going about land deeds as i am fascinated by them and are always looking to learn new information or tricks.