Identifying Land

One of the things that got me started on this genealogy journey in earnest was my desire to learn the history of the family land in a small town located in Deltaville, Virginia.  Our family's property in Deltaville has always been a part of my life, and it's thought to have been a part of the family since possibly the 1600's.  About a year ago, we almost lost the property.  I encourage you to read about it here- because perhaps my story will resonate with others and they will be hesitant to let greed overtake them (or at least it will be a warning for the sane to be wary of family wolves in sheep's clothing- but I digress).  

So, in the current search, there was mention in chancery court records of a case where members of the Jackson family who had married into the Kellum family were suing for inherited property that once belonged to Abel Kellum who currently is the top Kellum I have in my tree at the moment (I am directly descended from him and I have no information earlier than him at this time).  The assumption was made by myself and my cousins that the land in question was the area our property was located.  After the discovery of the graveyard recently, we began to wonder if perhaps the area across the creek from us where the graves were located was the actual property in question.

 Recently, one of my cousins found a plat from another chancery court case back in 1888.  So after reading through the information provided by the surveyor at the time and using the hand drawn plat, we attempted to figure out the area the plat showed.  The plat was referencing the same land owned by Abel Kellum that the Jacksons were involved with inheriting, and originally thought to be the area in which our property was located.

Here is a transcript of the description (as far as I can tell): Pursuant to the request of W.W.Woodward the commissioner appointed under a decree of the Circuit Court of the County of Middlesex in the year 1881 for the sale of the tract of land represented by the above plat belonging to the estate of Abel Kellum deceased lying or being in the corner end of the County of Middlesex in the East side of Sturgeon Creek, I proceeded on the 17th day of February 1881 to make the survey and found the area to be thirty and quarter acres commencing at figure 1 a stub (?) on the creek shore at the mouth of a cove and corner to Bowtell Leavie (?) running the meanderings of creek shore and cove to Figure 2 a stub on a point corner to this [unknown] near the mouth of a cove thence L S456 30 poles and 13L to 3, a blown down pine corner to the said [same unknown], thence 1/2 56 1/4 E 14 poles 4 turn in fence corner to the same, thence along the fence S466 20 poles and 10L to 5 a stub near the gate of the same and [unknown] on the road in the [unknown] tract thence S19 E8 poles and 18L to 7 a stub corner to Leavis and Trader (?) thence along the road S64 W 29 poles and 8L to 8 a fox pine thence S71 W 11 poles and 17L to 9 a pine thence S80 1/2 W 14 poles to 10 a stub corner to [unknown] thence 1/2 20 1/2 6 8 poles and 19L to 11 a cedar (?) stub in an old oak stump corner to Leevis (?) thence W66 poles and 23L to the beginning. Respectfully submitted R.L. Bland Surveyor 
Using the above description (okay, really only using the mention of the east side of Sturgeon Creek) and Google Maps' satellite mode, I'm fairly certain I have been able to figure out the area of the property mentioned.

The above photo shows the eastern side of Sturgeon Creek.  I matched the land shape on the right side with the hand drawn plat, and I'm confident, that while it was drawn some 130 years ago, the shape of the land is the same. 

This area of the creek is located directly across from where our house is located and is home to what we've discovered is the "Old Kellum Cemetery".  I've noted all the locations in the above photo to include the box wood cemetery, the area of the known graves, our family's house and the area I used to compare with the hand drawn plat.  It is definitely a move in the right direction, but we still don't know much about the ownership of the land the Jackson side of the family is on.  The hunt continues!

(thanks to the website elliottsurveying.org for the dictionary of surveying terms 

that helped decipher words in the Chancery Court records)