Abstracting Lines

The first thing you typically do for deed entry is describe, or abstract, certain information about it.  Who bought the land?  Who sold it?  When did the sale happen?  Where did you find the record? 

When you abstract the key elements of a deed or other property description, place those elements in the Text View using MBL (Metes and Bounds) keywords from the table below. The keywords are used to describe the information being entered. This information is entered before metes and bounds survey lines. 

Each keyword is optional but must appear at most once per item unless noted otherwise.  It is recommended they be entered in the order shown.

Lines beginning with MBL keywords can, in most cases, be chosen to appear in the Table View.  The most commonly used keywords are also supported in the Deed Entry form, as noted.

MBL keyword

Meaning

Deed Form?

Description

Typ

Type of item

yes

deed, lease, mortgage, grant, etc.

Ref

Reference

yes

typically deed book and page

Dat

Date

yes

date of sale, etc.

Rec

Recorded

yes

date the item was recorded at the courthouse

Frm

From

yes

grantor, lessor, selling party

To

To

yes

grantee, lessee, recipient party

Con

Consideration

yes

money or other value

Re

Regarding

yes

brief description of property or agreement

Wit

Witnesses

yes

names of witnesses

Til

Owned until

yes

date the property was eventually sold

Adj

Adjacent

yes

names of adjacent property owners

Id

ID number

yes

user-defined id number, e.g. lot, tax, parcel number, etc.

Decl

Declination

yes

(see Rotating Plots)

Len

Length

 

defines custom units of length (see User-defined Lengths)

Lbl

Label

 

user-defined display label (see Labels)

GPS

GPS

 

(see GPS points)  Can occur multiple times.

User-defined tag

 

 

(see User-defined Tags)

Once you have typed one of the legal keywords to begin an abstracting line, there are no requirements on what you must type thereafter. You may enter whatever information you consider relevant. There are, however, some recommendations:

Typ

Follow Typ with one of deed, mortgage, power, sale, lease, grant, claim, patent, survey, road, bond, will, order, dower, misc.

Mortgages are conditional sales of property with a date of repayment (a secured loan). Powers are any power of attorney. Sales are bills of sale of property other than land. Bonds are provisions of property as security for some action. Orders are court orders. Wills are wills that are done as distributions of property prior to death rather than as regular wills found in a Will Book. Dower refers to a woman relinquishing her right of dower on a tract of land.

DeedMapper attaches no special significance to the Typ you choose. You are free to make up any categories that seem proper to you. It is suggested, however, that you be consistent in the creation and use of Typ categories.

Dat, Rec, and Til

Dates should be kept as short as possible to allow compact display in the Table View.

Rec 11 Aug 1804

Dat 11-Aug-1804

Dat 2/13/1704/5

Ref

The same can be said for Ref, which we recommend follow the form of Book:Page, e.g.

Ref DB1:253

Ref K-1:17

Ref 1:367A

Next section: Survey description