Property Survey to Map

[trvlnmny]

Is there a way to use the information on our property survey and put

it into MapSource. On the survey I see a location that says Beg Point:

D.BK 1430 pg 119. From that point there are lines with lengths and

angles but nothing I see that has coordinates of any format.

Thanks for any and all help.

[+Indotguy]

Not with that info. If you had lat/long coordinates at the survey corners you could probably plot them on the map software.

[Hertzog]

Is there a way to use the information on our property survey and put

it into MapSource. On the survey I see a location that says Beg Point:

D.BK 1430 pg 119. From that point there are lines with lengths and

angles but nothing I see that has coordinates of any format.

Thanks for any and all help.

The first thing you need to do is find "D.BK 1430 pg 119" to see how the beginning point is described. In my (very limited) experience with property descriptions this is probably in terms of the local section (i.e. "the NW corner of the SW quadrant of the NE quadrant of Sec 36 15S 4E"). Then you would need to find a map or other source that shows the sections. A good place to look is the local USGS topo, which may show the section lines. You might even get lucky and find them in one of the Garmin topos. In my case I found a pdf file of the county I was interested in and interpolated from that (not particularly accurate, but fine for my purposes). You might get some help from your local county offices (I'm guessing you will have to contact them to look at "D.BK 1430 pg 119" anyway).

 

Once you have the beginning point lat/lon, the angles would just be headings (from true north probably) and path lengths. One thing you will find irritating about MapSource is that it in rounds lengths to the nearest 0.1 mile for lengths greater than 526 feet as you try to lay out the boundary (you can get aroung this somewhat by going to metric, but if your property description is in feet this is not a great work around).

[BelchFire]

I fiddled around trying to do this one time and the best solution I found (such that it is), was to find the actual points, corners, markers, etc, and save each as a waypoint. Then, for display purposes, I created a route from point to point and set it to display on the map.

Edited September 28, 2008 by BelchFire

[Grasscatcher]

Is there a way to use the information on our property survey and put

it into MapSource. On the survey I see a location that says Beg Point:

D.BK 1430 pg 119. From that point there are lines with lengths and

angles but nothing I see that has coordinates of any format.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

Go to your county courthouse records area and "ask for" and "look in" D Book (probably Deed Book) 1430 0n page 119, for the legal description for the "Beginning Point" for your specific property. You should be able to determine the coordinates for that point from that description by plotting it in Expert GPS. Be sure to note if they used Mag North, or True North and duplicate in your work.

 

Find someone that uses Expert GPS by Topografix, or download the free trial version. Using EGPS and starting at the first point, project subsequent points from the distance(lengths) and bearings(angles) on your deed and determine the coordinates for those points.

 

Then you can plug the coordinates into your GPS and go directly to each one. (probably within a 10 ft circle)

 

Been there ,done that, numerous times.

[+Okiebryan]

Get a surveyor. If you have already had it surveyed, then you can go to the monumented property corners, take shots with your handheld and then input those waypoints into whatever program.

 

What you are asking for is something I've seen done a hundred times, then when someone starts building fences, pools and whatever, they have a major problem on their hands and need a surveyor and it ends up costing 20x more. Please. Get a licensed land surveyor to show you where your corners are, then you can go to town and do whatever you want.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Okiebryan

[+coggins]

Is there a way to use the information on our property survey and put

it into MapSource. On the survey I see a location that says Beg Point:

D.BK 1430 pg 119. From that point there are lines with lengths and

angles but nothing I see that has coordinates of any format.

Thanks for any and all help.

It sounds like your property description is in Metes and Bounds. This would make sense as you are in New Jersey. I don't think that PLSS sections, township and range lines will be of any use to you.

[+CBT69]

Be aware, that depending on the age of the property, and when it was deeded, that entry in Dbk might be "large apple tree", "granite boulder", "fence post" etc.

[murja]

Land Surveyor here. "D.BK 1430 pg 119" does indeed refer to the Deed Book and Page number of the recorded deed. It can be found at your county Registry of Deeds,and now quite often on-line.

"Beg Point: D.BK 1430 pg 119" refers to the Beginning Point in the deed description for the parcel of land described in Deed Book 1430, Page 119. I would be willing to bet money that you won't find a Lat/Long. or coordinate value for that Point of Beginning either in the deed or on a survey pan unless the survey has been tied into a known coordinate system. Unfortunately in the past, and it still occurs today, some surveyors would take a reference bearing with their compass and use what they called "Magnetic North" as the basis for their survey. Essentially, this is an assumed coordinate system. It makes it easy for a landowner to follow their boundary lines with a compass but is useless in trying to replicate points or "property corners" with a hand held GPS.

One option.

Go to the property and locate as many known corners as you can with your GPS.

Plot the position of your corners.

Layout the mathematics of your survey using the "lengths and angles" you were talking about. This will result in a polygon with different line segments.

Rotate the polygon to fit the coordinates of your located property corners.

This will then allow you to assign coordinate values to property corners that are either missing or were'nt located.

Just remember, your coordinate values are only as good as the accuracy of your GPS. DO NOT make any land transactions or plan ANY future construction based on your figures! As "okiebryan" said, get a surveyor. I too have seen this type of situation really blow up on folks. Good luck!

[+naviguesser74]

go to the points on the survey and record the lat and long from your gps. i was able to do this, then scan and calibrate the map using the known points. did this on a palm with software called GPSTracker. You may be able to do it with other software.

[+paulmc]

Funny true story from Point of Beginning magazine (from memory):

Lady calls land surveyor for a survey, saying "you surveyed here a few years ago".

Surveyor can't remember her so he goes to preview her lot.

He admits to her "I have no memory or records of surveying this land for you".

Oh, she says, it was my neighbor who called for the survey. I wanted my line surveyed so I had some men drill post holes just inside his property and lay posts beside them. He wasted no time in having our line surveyed and it didn't cost me a cent.