Mappy Monday: Milton Price Brittain in 1874, Keokuk County, Iowa

One of these days I'm going to win the lottery, buy an Airstream trailer and a sweet ride with which to tow it, and then take off on a grand tour of all of the places where my ancestors settled and lived. That's my dream, anyway! Until then, I'm on the hunt for historical maps that show exactly where my ancestors resided during their lives. Since a lot of my ancestors were farmers and land owners, I've been able to dig up some amazing plat maps that detail exact location of my ancestors' land, by name, and even how much land they owned.

What are plat maps? Creating plat maps was an important step in the process incorporating towns and cities according to US law. Plat maps are drawn to scale, showing the divisions of land, road designations and other zoning concerns. Historical land maps can be gold for a genealogist because they often name the owners of the parcels of land that have been designated on the map. You can find these maps in many places on the Internet, but a great place to start is the Bureau of Land Management web site.

Here's an 1874 plat map from Steady Run Township in Keokuk County, Iowa, that shows the land that was owned by my GGG grandfather, Milton Price Brittain. This was before he and his family headed south to Indian Territory, most likely around the time of the Oklahoma land grabs of the 1890s.

Keokuk County Atlas, 1874. M. P. Brittain is about 2/3 down the map, along the left border.
You can click on the map to view a larger version and zoom in.

Here's a close up shot of Milton Price Brittain's land. You can see from the map that he owned 380 acres and was surrounded by much smaller farms. It looks like my GGG grandfather and his family were doing pretty well during that time of his life.

As I look at the census documents from around that time, I can also see some of the same names there that I find on this plat map. You can often find other members of the same family nearby on plat maps, as well as names of family that show up in your ancestors' various documents, such as family histories, wills, marriage records, etc.

I'm still on the hunt for more plat maps as I continue my family history journey because the maps help to tell the grand stories of my ancestors. I'll be sure to share with you what I find!

UPDATE!
I just found a United States Land Record from 1849 that shows Milton Price Brittain buying 40 acres of the parcel of land that is shown in the above map. Here's the record. What a great find!!

Mappy Monday: Bartram Farm in Wabaunsee County, Kansas

There's so much more to genealogy than just collecting names and dates. I love learning about the stories of my ancestors: where did they come from, what did they do, what were the hardships, joys and adventures of their lives? Both sides of my family had the pioneer spirit. I have family who moved with William Penn from England to what would become America in the 1600s (more on my Quakers later), folks who became the first white settlers in Indian Territory (before it became Oklahoma) and ancestors who moved from Germany to New York to San Francisco and then to Tracy, California, where they were some of the pioneering settlers in my own hometown.

My maternal great grandfather, Joseph Bartram, was a Welshman who immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. I'm still trying to figure out the whole story, but legend has it that he came here by ship with his father to bring Herefordshire cattle to Kansas. His father headed back home to the UK, but died at sea before he could reach his homeland. Joseph stayed in Kansas, married Alice A. Veale, and they had 17 kids together (including my Grandpa John).

Before they moved from Kansas to California in around 1930, Joseph and Alice had quite a spread in Plumb, Wabaunsee County, Kansas. Fortunately for me, I was able to find the Kansas Memory website (I love the Internet!) which had, available for download, a 1902 plat map that showed exactly where Joseph's farm sat in relation to his neighbors, as well as how many acres he held. It also shows, with a little dot, where the house stood on the farm. This is the house where Grandpa John grew up! My Aunt Brenda said that she's been out to where the old farm stood but, sadly, there's not much left.

The Bartrams lived in Plumb Township, Wabaunsee County, Kansas

Joseph's farm is near the bottom left of the top map. See below for detail.

You can see that the Bartrams had two parcels at a total of 180 acres.
The little square dot is where the house stood.