FamilySearch Find Of The Day: 1848 Tippah County Land Deed for Hiram Howell

Tippah County, Deed Book H, pages 197-198

Hiram Howell, Deed from, David Howell
SW 1/4, Sec. 7, T5, R2E

This Indenture made and entered into this the 3rd day of April, eighteen hundred and forty eight between David Howell and his wife Parthena Howell of the first part witnesseth and Hiram Howell of the second part the for and in consideration of the sum of four hundred dollars in hand paid the first party by the second party the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged the said first party has bargained and sold and by these presents do bargain sell and convey unto the said party of the second party his heirs and assignes the following piece of land lying and being in said County of Tippah and known in the plan of the Chickasaw survey in the State of Mississippi as the South West qr. of section (7) seven of Township (5) five Range (2) two East with all the improvements thereon to have and to hold to him the said party of the second part his heirs and assignes forever and the said party of the first part do for themselves heirs and legal representatives forever warrant and defend the right title interest and claim in and to the above described land against the lawful claim or claims of any or all persons whatsoever. In witness whereof the first party has hereunto set our hands and seals the day and year above written.
David Howell (seal)
Parthena Howell (seal)

State of Mississippi, Tippah County
Personally appeared before us, A. Aynes a Justice of the Peace for said County the written named David Howell who acknowledged that the signed sealed and delivered the foregoing deed on the day and year therein mentioned as his act and deed also personally appeared before us Parthena Howell the wife of the said David Howell who on a private examination by us separate and apart from her husband acknowledged that she signed sealed and delivered the foregoing deed on the day and year therein mentioned as her act and deed freely without any fear thereas or compulsion of her husband. Given under my hand and seal this 3rd day of April 1848.
A. Ayns (seal), Justice of the Peace
The foregoing deed was filed for record the 11th day of May 1848 and recorded the 30th day of May 1848.
Daniel Hunt, clerk

How To Locate Your Ancestor's Land

After researching my family tree for ten years, I've encountered my fair share of land deeds and records. One of my biggest problems was actually locating where that land lies on present-day maps. It can be quite challenging using old surveyor maps and even present day plat maps, and then matching them up to the maps of today.. like Google Maps. One reason I'm particularly interested in finding where their land actually was, is because this land most likely holds buried family members. Down in the southern states, many family members were buried in family cemeteries on the land the family owned before the time of modern public cemeteries. To even have a chance of finding them, if any markers of any kind still exist at all anymore, you'd need to figure out where the land was that they were living on.

In the past two weeks, I've been able to find some land deeds that pertain to my Howell family from Tippah County, Mississippi (thanks to the new database on FamilySearch!). The person I am most interested in, is Hiram Howell, my 5th-great-grandfather. He was known to have been murdered in 1853 by his son-in-law, Lindsey Slaughter.

Hiram Howell (mistakenly written as Wren Howell) had actually bought his land on 10 Oct 1846 (record on the left) from Lindsey Slaughter, who himself had received the land as part of the homesteading acts. The specific details of the land are the North-East quarter of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East (NE1/4 of S9 T5S R2E). Just the other day, I stumbled upon a website that would map the exact location of Section 9 for me, using Google Earth. Google Earth is a program that you install on your computer that is much similar to Google Maps, but with much more features and way more powerful. The website is called Earth Point, and it's specifically used as a tool for Google Earth.

Once you get to the page, navigate to the section called "Convert Township, Range, and Section to Latitude and Longitude", as seen on the right. Enter your your data into the drop-down boxes and then click on "Fly To On Google Earth". Open the file once it's finished downloading.

After opening the file, Google Earth will automatically open and bring you to the exact location of Section 9, Township 5 South, Range 2 East, in Tippah County, Mississippi. From there, I can easily find the North-East quarter of Section 9. Pretty cool, huh? To the left is a snapshot of what you'll see. What kind of tools do you use to locate the land of your ancestors?