Secondary Sources -- Tract Names

Recently someone commented at the Montgomery County Historical Society Library, that Maryland was the only state they knew of that gave names to land tracts. Not so, I countered, but I didn't have a ready contrary example.  However, going through my family files this morning, I came across a secondary source, not deemed reliable by some, but which provided great clues to my Crawford ancestry when I began my research on them in Western Pennsylvania.  This source is "The Horn Papers" published in 1945 by the Green County Historical Society, compiled by William Franklin Horn.  Although his methodology and some of the material has been questioned on accuracy, I still found the maps of East Bethlehem Township, which showed the Crawford's odd shaped land patents, with tract names such as "Plumb Bottom" and "Skipton" interesting and helpful at the time, and good illustrations of a point today.  Yes, other states did allow grants to be named.

The other thing that's nice about plats like this, whether done by hobbyists and volunteers or professional surveyors is that they help to identify community members.  It doesn't hurt to know That Edward Dorsey and Thomas Cooper were neighbors -- especially if you know Dorsey was from Maryland -- so were the Crawfords, as it turns out.

The Genealogy Club of the Montgomery County Historical Society had a project that began in the 1970s, to identify all of the early land patents in Montgomery County.  This project took over 20 years, and up until 5 years ago was still being tweaked by the three lady volunteers who undertook the project, Shiela Cochran, Florence Howard and Mary Charlotte Crook.

Frederick and Carroll County land patents were identified by a surveyor (or two - or three) those papers now reside at the Carroll County Historical Society --  part of the Tracey Collection. 

Later cadastral maps identify owners of farms, most natably Griffith and Klinge Atlases -- all the way to the current tax assessors maps and plats.  However, finding that your ancestor was an original grantee/grantor is always exciting.  AND if they named the patent, consider WHY they gave a name to a tract --  in Montgomery County, many places were named for places in Scotland, Ireland or England.  Consider names such as "Sligo Hills", "Clewerwell," "Chevy Chase," (from Cheviot Hills) to be clues to ancestral origins.