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Find the history of a wooded lot?

nostalgia083

Full Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2013
Messages
170
Location
Middle TN
There's a wooded lot beside my house. No one has ever lived there to my knowledge but there are piles of large stones that's been there long as I can remember. My neighbor across the road said the history of the lot goes back to the American civil war, but I'm not sure what all she meant by it.

Is it possible to learn the history of land without anyone having lived there?
 
There's a wooded lot beside my house. No one has ever lived there to my knowledge but there are piles of large stones that's been there long as I can remember. My neighbor across the road said the history of the lot goes back to the American civil war, but I'm not sure what all she meant by it.

Is it possible to learn the history of land without anyone having lived there?

You can use Historic aerials to see what was there, assuming there are maps of the area.


https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer
 
You can go to the register of deeds for your county, they will have history of every person that owned it. Sometimes it can be confusing since the lot was probably a tract of larger land.

What's cool with this, it will record any leagal action surrounding the property ownership.
 
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Try the county engineers office. For old survey information. Or old county atlases at the library.
Try the local historical society.
Tons of information out there go get it!
 
The land is owned.

You need to find land deeds. If it's not public land, it is privately owned. And either way there would be land deeds from when it was first homesteaded or parceled out.

My previous property was first found in deed records to have been granted to someone who served in the spanish/american war.
 
.... there would be land deeds from when it was first homesteaded or parceled out.....

But that would only tell you ownership. Not activity. And there's a heck-of-a-lot of land that might (sure) have been OWNED by someone. Yet ..... sat utterly sterile and un-used for any purpose. In-so-far as our-particular-needs.
 
But that would only tell you ownership. Not activity. And there's a heck-of-a-lot of land that might (sure) have been OWNED by someone. Yet ..... sat utterly sterile and un-used for any purpose. In-so-far as our-particular-needs.

Ownership is the most important part of any metal detecting research. First, you can't hunt private property. Second, ownership research will show the progression of the land over time. If there is a structure or large stones (cellar hole?) on the property, knowing when the ownership first occurred helps narrow the research area. The deeds can show who/when the property was owned. And it could also prove if it dates back to the civil war.

Example, the land I had was granted after the spanish/american war, but the owner who it was granted to, did not build on my parcel. Turns out the parcel was 80 acres and was divided twice before I purchased it. It was also owned by a logging company (which explained the hand hewn logs and timber bridges over the creek). Then it went to an oil company, then back to private owners as hunting property and then myself. The bridges and remains we found were from the logging camps.

Those camps were early 1900's according to the deeds timeline.
 
There's a wooded lot beside my house. No one has ever lived there to my knowledge but there are piles of large stones that's been there long as I can remember. My neighbor across the road said the history of the lot goes back to the American civil war, but I'm not sure what all she meant by it.



Is it possible to learn the history of land without anyone having lived there?



You can probably do an aerial survey of the land with a camera equipped zone so long as you adhere to any drone flying laws. Eg Not near an airfield, maximum height limits etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You can probably do an aerial survey of the land with a camera equipped drone so long as you adhere to any drone flying laws. Eg Not near an airfield, maximum height limits etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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