Mapping My Grandfathers
I learned about the County Appraisal Districts through a temp job I had several years ago. Most of them are now online so that private appraisal groups can speed the property tranfers a bit. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the "original" land owners (those who purchased property from the Spanish, Mexican, Texan or US Federal governments) are still listed in the Appraisal district records.Most of the CADs offer an advanced search where you can search for the Abstract Number. The Abstract numbers are listed for most Texas counties in the Archives. http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txcounties.htm
For this example I decided to do a family I have not done previously. My Langley family was in Frio County at about the right time.
Step one: Check the Frio County Archives
Original Land Owners of Texas
Use the browser's "Find"
Yes, J R Langley
Step two: Visit Frio CAD (friocad.org)
Go to Advanced search
Check the first box and change it to legal description, type in the ABstract number from the Archives (the far right column)
Step three: Map the results
Using the Geo numbers from these three plats and and the four from his other ABstract, I can now use Google Maps to highlight and print the property James once owned.
Both Abstracts are in the vicinity of the Schattel, Miguel, Goldfinch triangle.