SLIG 2023: Metes & Bounds Land Platting

Land platting skills and the ability to use land plats can help you solve genealogical problems. This advanced course will teach you how.

Metes & Bounds Land Platting, coordinated by Gerald H. "Jerry" Smith, CG, is a practicum-based course in which, after learning essential skills, students will learn by doing real-world research problems with guidance from faculty. Topics include reading and abstracting metes and bounds legal land descriptions, hand-drawing, plats, computer platting, platting over base maps (including USGS), resolving common plat problems, constructing connected tract maps, and geo-locating base maps and plats. Related topics include land tenure, map resources, historical surveying equipment and practices, online resources, and using Google Earth. Much of the course is practicum-based using DeedMapper software.

Faculty includes:

• Syndey Cruice
• Kimberly Powell
• Richard G. Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA

This is an advanced-level course. See the course description on the SLIG website for details about prerequisites and required equipment and software.

Metes & Bounds Land Platting is scheduled to meet online January 23–27, 2023. All SLIG 2023 courses will be offered virtually this year. (See you in person in Salt Lake City in 2024!)

See the SLIG Courses web page for more information, including updates.

SLIG 2023 registration opens Saturday, July 16, at 10:00 am MDT.

Course Spotlight: Advanced Land Tools: Maps

Have you ever wanted to visualize an ancestor's migration route, get help with locating boundaries, or learn more about the place your family lived? Advanced Land Tools: Maps will offer education on all of these topics and more at SLIG 2022. As the course description reads, "Maps are a useful, essential tool to conduct effective genealogical research." This course provides exciting hands-on opportunities to learn about these research tools and their wide variety of applications.

Experience Maps First-Hand

Under the tutelage of experienced subject experts, this class incorporates more than lectures: it gives you opportunities to practice and learn essential skills. Visits will be taken to local map repositories with opportunities to learn about and use a wide variety of maps and map-based resources. Students also gain knowledge by working with a range of finding aids and learning how to evaluate maps for their value in solving genealogical research problems.

Building Knowledge with Labs

Student experiences in this course are taken even further by hands-on workshops in several computer labs. Through these labs, attendees will discover online resources, learn to plat metes and bounds land descriptions, and utilize technology such as the historic geographic information systems (GIS) to enhance their research capabilities. These unique learning experiences will also teach students how to create their own maps to aid in research.

The full schedule for this course, faculty bios, and course details can be found here.

Join us for SLIG 2022

Held January 9-14, 2022, in Salt Lake City, the 27th annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy promises the in-depth, advanced educational opportunities SLIG has become known for. SLIG offers high-intermediate to advanced education and includes courses on methodology, standards, regional or ethnic group research, recordsets, and research tools like DNA. Visit our website to view a full selection of available courses.

Learn more about SLIG 2022. Registration opens on August 14th, 2021, at 10:00 am MDT. Create a registration account today! If you have any questions, please reach out to the UGA registrar: registrar@slig.ugagenealogy.org.

Learn more about records to advance your research!

Are you interested in a records-based course to elevate your genealogical education?

If so, check out the courses we are offering in 2020:

• Advanced Research Tools: Land Records, Coordinators: Richard G. Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA and Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, FUGA
• Guide to Treasures Found in Federal Records, Coordinator:  Michael L. Strauss, AG
• Immigrants to the New World, Colonial to 1900, Coordinator: John Philip Colletta, PhD, FUGA
• Early U.S. Church Records, Coordinator: Rev. Dr. David McDonald, CG 

Registration opens this Saturday! See SLIG's website for more details!

Land Genealogy is as Important as People Genealogy!

Land genealogy is as important as people genealogy for overcoming family history research barriers. 

This course explores land distribution in the current United States by colonial powers, private land claims, federal land records at both the National Archives and the General Land Office, and local-level county or town deeds. Students will learn about the Public Land Survey System and the metes and bound system. Course content illustrates the use of land records to prove kinship. Use of software and Internet resources for finding land records, mapping, and deed platting is demonstrated and practiced in hands-on labs or classroom exercises.

Co-coordinators Rick Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA and Pam Sayre, CG, FUGA are assisted by:

• Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG, CGL
• Angela Packer McGhie, CG
• Judy G. Russell, JD, CG, CGL
• Gerald H. "Jerry" Smith, CG

Attendees are expected to have a basic understanding of land records. Attendance at an intermediate level course such as Researching Like a Professional offered at SLIG or Intermediate Genealogy & Historical Studies offered at IGHR or SLIG Virtual Intermediate Foundations is recommended.

Registration for SLIG 2020 opens July 13, 2019 at 9:00 am MDT. For more information, go here.

SLIG 2020 Records-Based Courses

Are you interested in a records-based course to elevate your genealogical education?

If so, check out the courses we are offering in 2020:

• Advanced Research Tools: Land Records, Coordinators: Richard G. Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA and Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG, FUGA
• Guide to Treasures Found in Federal Records, Coordinator:  Michael L. Strauss, AG
• Immigrants to the New World, Colonial to 1900, Coordinator: John Philip Colletta, PhD, FUGA
• Early U.S. Church Records, Coordinator: Rev. Dr. David McDonald, CG 

Stay tuned as more information will be coming soon at SLIG's website!

SLIG 2018 Course Highlight: Advanced Land Tools: Maps

Course 12:

 Advanced Land Tools: Maps

With

Richard G. Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA

Maps are a useful, essential tool to conduct effective genealogical research. Applications include locating and visualizing ancestors in time and place, locating boundaries, discovering and following family groups, identifying migration routes, and organizing and correlating information to discover relationships. The class sessions will expose students to a wide range of maps, repositories, and genealogical strategies. Students will gain an understanding of land division systems in America and learn the basics of landing platting and its application to genealogical research. Students are shown a variety of finding aids to locate unfamiliar place names, to identify and search for maps online and in archives useful in their genealogical research, and how to evaluate a map for its application in solving a genealogical research problem.

Through visits to map repositories and hands on exercises students will experience the variety of maps and map-related products available to the genealogist such as cadastral, topographic, fire insurance, military maps, gazetteers of various kinds, and atlases. Several computer labs will provide the opportunity to discover online resources and the advances in technology such as historic geographic information systems (GIS). Students will learn how to create their own maps using Google tools to support new avenues of research and create personal and professional satisfaction.

Source: Wikipedia

Level of Instruction

Intermediate to Advanced

Suggested Prerequisites

A basic knowledge of land records and familiarity with a basic text such as Patricia Hatcher's Locating Your Roots : Discover Your Ancestors Using Land Records.

Other Instructors

• Melinda Kashuba, PhD
• Kimberly Powell
• Gerald H "Jerry" Smith, CG

Please visit our web page for full course and bio at www.slig.ugagenealogy.org