While reading my Google Alerts this morning, I ran across a very
interesting post that discusses land deeds. Amy Yencer from Old
Fashioned Housekeeping talks about what land records are and
where they can be found, and includes definitions of the
numerous terms to be found in a land documents: Aliquot Parts –
were used to represent the exact subdivision of the section of
land. Halves of a Section (or subdivision thereof) are
represented as N, S, E, and W (such as “the north half of
section 5″). Quarters of a Section (or subdivision thereof) are
represented as NW, SW, NE, and SE (such as “the northwest
quarter of section 5″). Sometimes, several Aliquot Parts are
required to accurately describe a parcel of land. For example,
“ESW” denotes the east half of the southwest quarter containing
80 acres and “SWNENE” denotes the southwest quarter of the
northeast quarter of the northeast quarter containing 10 acres.
If you’ve visited the Bureau of Land Management site and located
records for your ancestors, wouldn’t it