Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

My friend Jennifer from California sent a link which caught my attention.

Not to steal the author’s thunder, but instead of a simple comment, I can’t help but do a Post of my own. I try to put myself in the circumstances of the colonial map maker himself. They had no knowledge of any kind of say, an aerial map… not even a balloon. If they were familiar with the North Star they could grasp the NSEW coordinates… my point without further remarks is that it was all a rudimentary task. More to my point, imagine yourself canoeing up a river (paper and pen in hand) and draft a map. The existing maps are almost comical by today’s standards. But give the old boys a break… they served their purpose pretty well at the time.

But to the point of “How Accurate Are They?”. My opinion is that they are extremely accurate. And I do not take the term “extremely” lightly. They old boys were as accurate in their surveys as we are today… in some cases almost to a foot and inches. Examine almost any of my maps and note that I build on the basis of a modern “aerial” map… but the actual “survey” coordinates (metes and bounds) are hundreds of years old. My Isle of Wight map or Nansemond, as examples, date to the 1600s. I take immense pride in the fact that I am slowly resurrecting the “burned” county of Nansemond. You be the judge of how “accurate” it is…. the surveys are from the original records found at the Library of Virginia.

Indeed it was stated by a prominent NC colonist (Moseley) that his 1733 map “was based on actual surveys”… he just did not have that many surveys. I remember the old saying “close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades”. I would add Colonial Maps. They got you to the ballpark… it was up to you to find the batter’s box.

……………I think Jennifer sent this link as well a while back