Continuing Adventures of Neighborhood Land Search Part 2

I’ve finished reading through vol. N online, but haven’t platted more deeds since then.  Instead, I looked through what deeds I’ve found including those from my visit to my local Family History Center and looked through what tracts I’m missing by using the spreadsheet I’ve created of people enumerated in the 1870 Hardeman County, TN census.

Since some of the acreage amounts don’t match deeds and tax records I’ve found, I decided to go with the theory that those amounts are for multiple tracts of land and then build on that theory with the idea that these multiple tracts of land are next to each other—unless it’s explicitly mentioned in the documents that they’re not.  This may be a bad theory to make, but I feel that it’s logical since that seems the only reasonable explanation for the tax records I’ve found to agree with the deeds.  Also, my theory seemed to work when I was able to “tie” 3 deeds together for one land owner when their cumulative acreage matched exactly to the acreage they were taxed on in the tax records.

Raiford Bizzell listed in 1870 tax list.

Raiford Bizzle's platted deeds in DeedMapper.

Raiford Bizzell compiled taxed acreage and plats listed in spreadsheet.

 As I compared the records I’ve found with the spreadsheet, I found tracts that were possible matches for what I was missing and indicated this on the spreadsheet.  I still haven’t found deeds for all of the land owners listed on my spreadsheet, but still feel that I’m making progress on this project—albeit slowly.

Once I finished reading through vol. N, I began on vol. M, Sept. 1853-July 1855.  In this vol. I found some interesting deeds that may help me in placing some of the other plats I’ve found.  One of these is the deed for 189 acres that Wm. Fulgham sells to Pitser Miller.  This mentions a 2000 acre tract belonging Thomas Claiborne that seems to stand out in some of the land records I’ve viewed and also shares a boundary with one of my ancestor’s deeds.

Another deed I found was Stephen Childress’ 127 acres that he sold to Robert H Goad.  Goad later sells part of this land to Henry Bizzle.  In the deed to Henry, it mentions a road that runs from Bolivar to Simpson’s Ferry and states that it was once part of Childress’ entry.

I don’t know if I’ll find the time to plat out the deeds that seem pertinent to recreating my ancestor’s neighborhood.  But my plan is to definitely review more closely those deeds I’ve found to see if they will fit into the puzzle and help create an accurate depiction of the neighborhood.