Plotting Your Ancestor's Land in the Federal Land States

Sections were then further subdivided into smaller pieces, such as halves and quarters, while still (generally) keeping the land in a square. Aliquot Parts were used to represent the exact subdivision of each such section of land. Halves of a Section (or subdivision thereof) are represented as N, S, E, and W (such as the north half of section 5). Quarters of a Section (or subdivision thereof) are represented as NW, SW, NE, and SE (such as the northwest quarter of section 5). Sometimes, several Aliquot Parts are required to accurately describe a parcel of land. Example: ESW denotes the east half of the southwest quarter of a section, containing 80 acres. In general:

• a township contains 23,040 acres
• a section contains 640 acres,
• a half section contains 320 acres,
• a quarter section contains 160 acres,
• a half of a quarter contains 80 acres,
• a quarter of a quarter contains 40 acres, etc.

A legal land description for the public land states might, for instance, be written as: the west half of the northwest quarter, section 8, township 38, range 24, containing 80 acres, usually abbreviated as W½ of NW¼ 8=T38=R24, containing 80 acres.