Mapping with Google Earth: Metes and Bounds Deed

 I recently took on the challenge to identify and map my 4 times great grandfather's land in Highland County, Ohio. The description of the land from the July 8th, 1820 deed states: 

"...all that tract or parcel of land lying and being in the County of Highland and State of Ohio on Rocky Fork bounded and described as follows: Beginning at a beech and poplar in the line of Roses Survey No. 541; thence with the line north 48 degrees 15" W one hundred & sixty two poles to the middle of the Rocky Fork aforesaid; thence from the same beginning poplar and beech N 70 degrees W one hundred and seventy six poles to the middle of the creek aforesaid; thence down the same as it meanders so far as to intersect the first line in the middle of the creek aforesaid containing thirty four acres be it the same more or less being part of a survey of 500 acres entered for William S Hawkins No. 3320..."

I started my journey by Googling for historical maps of Highland County, Ohio. I found an 1871 Atlas at Historic Map Works. I then located the map page for Paint Township. There were actually 2 pages and sure enough, Rose Survey No. 541 is marked right on the edge of the county next to Ross County. The map also shows Paint Creek, where it forks and the Rocky Fork creek that comes off the fork. 

Note that right below the Rose Survey is Hawkins No. 1936. William's land was part of a Hawkins survey albeit No 3320. Given that the atlas I found was for 1871 and the deed is from 1820, I assumed the Hawkins portion had been resurveyed between 1820 and 1871. The other markers (Roses Survey No. 541 and the Rocky Fork), gave me confidence I was in the right place. 

I then went to Google Earth and found the Paint Creek, the fork and the Rocky Fork. I noticed a dam has been put in place at some point in time. The top red circle is the dam and the bottom red circle is the Fork.

If you visually compare the two images above you can see they look very similar. To better compare the two, I used a snippet of the map to create an overlay in Google earth. With some stretching and turning I was able to get it to line up fairly well. I reduced the opacity so you can see both maps at once.

Then I set about trying to follow the deed's description using a Polygon in Google Earth to map out where William's land likely was. 

I'm certainly no pro, but I feel confident that I'm in the right area. I even added a couple of his notable neighbors by doing the same process with their deeds. 

Nicholas Swadley owned all of the dark purple and the orange land. Nicholas Swadley was William Poland's father-in-law. Nicholas sold the dark purple portion to Peter Houghman who was the brother of the man that raised William. The orange slice was William Troth the father of Job Troth that would become William's first son-in-law when he married William's oldest daughter Matilda. 

This was a fun project and it is nice to be able to visualize where my ancestor's lived. If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it!