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Archiver > DEED-MAPPER-USERS > 2009-04 > 1239504250


From: Dave Bird <>
Subject: Re: [DMU] What is an "open line"
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:44:16 -0700
References: <LLEOLCHBMEBAFFAAMPPOAEKNDCAA.steve.stevens@verizon.net><49E0A863.3020100@earthlink.net>
In-Reply-To: <49E0A863.3020100@earthlink.net>


This seems clear enough. Whether it applies to my deed is problematical.

A bit of background... The John Bird mentioned in the deed is of
particular interest to me in that he is almost certainly my ancestor.
All of the papers having to do with his original head right are missing
so that I am left to reconstruct his deed from sales records and from
his neighbors. His sale deeds are very obscure in that the property was
broken up piecemeal, and major parts of it refer only to neighbors lines
with no specific directions or distances. So, it is quite possible that
the original survey was incomplete in this way.

Thanks for the astute reply.

Dave


Barbara Vines Little, CG wrote:
> I suspect that what you have is the last line run Sarah Smith notes on
> p. 124 of _Surveyors and Statesmen_
> "Another shortcut surveyors sometimes took was to omit measuring the
> last course of a tract in the field; instead the bearing and distance
> were calculated in the office as the scaled plotting was done.
> Occasionally such forced closures were explicitly mentioned in field
> notes, as in the "open Course" shown in William Preston's survey of his
> own land, called Walnut Bottom . . ."
>
> Barbara Vines Little, CG
> Dominion Research Services
> PO Box 1273
> Orange, VA 22960
>
> 540-832-3473
>
> CG, Certified Genealogist, is a service mark of the Board for
> Certification of Genealogists, used under
> license by board certified genealogists after periodic evaluation, and
> the board name is registered in the
> US Patent & Trademark Office.
>
>
> Steve Stevens wrote:
>> This is just a guess, but it could be referring to an open field.
>> Normally
>> a tree line or creek, river, etc. are used as boundaries, but in this
>> case
>> there was no "boundary."
>>
>> Regards,
>> Steve Stevens
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:
>> [mailto:]On Behalf Of Dave Bird
>> Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 1:22 AM
>> To:
>> Subject: [DMU] What is an "open line"
>>
>>
>> I have a deed which has the following wording:
>>
>> Beginning at a black Oak and two post Oaks in a conditional line
>> between John Murphy and said Butler thence
>> South 160 poles
>> to three black Oaks in John Birds open line thence
>> East six poles
>> to his corner thence
>> with sd Birds line
>> South 19 poles
>> to a black Oak post Oak & hickory thence
>>
>> What is this so-called "open line"? I've looked in various on-line refs,
>> google, yahoo, etc. I can find the term used in surveys but not
>> explained. The usage is similar to the above.
>>
>> In one place it refers simply to a deed survey that does not close
>> exactly, but this does not seem to apply here.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Dave
>>
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