Found a 1770s map error that changed how I research old boundaries

I was looking at a Mitchell map from 1775 and noticed the border for a New England county was drawn wrong by about 15 miles. Cross-checked it with a 1790 survey record at the library and realized the mistake got copied into later maps. Has anyone else caught an error like this in their local maps?

2 comments

2 Comments

fisher.taylor21d ago

You ever find one of those and just sit there staring? I was digging through old town records in Connecticut and found a survey from the 1720s that had a stone wall marked as the boundary, but the wall was actually built 20 years later. It shifted everything. Took me weeks to track down the original deed and prove it. That Mitchell map you mentioned is famous for errors actually, there's a whole book about how it screwed up land claims in New York. The worst part is once a mistake gets on paper it just keeps getting copied. I now triple check every old map against original survey notes, it's the only way to be sure.

matthewross20d ago

That's the same way bad info spreads online - once it's out there, good luck killing it.