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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

The Further Adventures of the Womble Neighborhood Land Search

I was able to resume my search for John Washington Womble’s neighbors earlier this year.  The microfilm that I’d requested last fall and resulted in a minor snafu with the FHL was resolved in February.  I was able to make copies of the tax records for Civil District 12 for the years 1869-1872 and took note of the amount of acreage the neighbors owned.

I then used this information when imputing the information into the spreadsheet I created about John Washington Womble’s neighbors.  The spreadsheet lists out the individual land plots that the neighbors owned and whether or not it’s been platted out.  Then I listed out what plots of land I’m still missing.  The list also contained the land acreage based on the findings from the tax records I viewed.
After I’d viewed the tax records, I ordered the next deed books that I felt I needed to read through in order to find the remaining neighbors’ land. While waiting for the microfilm to arrive, I checked out topographical maps on the U.S. Geological Survey's website at http://www.usgs.gov/. Maps can be searched for and downloaded for free from their site. I've wanted a more detailed map and one that I knew the scale or a least could determine the scale better that I could place my plats on.
I selected the section of Hardeman County, Tennessee that I'm interested in and then began downloading. I selected 4 maps and then needed to find a way to piece them together. Once they were downloaded, I used a graphic editing program to clip away the white borders surrounding each of the map images. Then pieced the images together and created a larger image or map which was then imported into DeedMapper.
Hopefully this new background map will help me more when placing the plats.

Part of Hardeman County, Tennessee topographical map