map of perry township in lincoln county sd

Often the best lots were in the lowest numbered (or lettered) concessions. The surveyors put the most desirable lots close to what they felt were important physical features, methods of transportation, or population centres. Wherever your ancestors lived in Ontario, figuring out the idiosyncrasies of how concessions where arranged can provide additional information. You can see them clearly, just left of centre, on this map of Haliburton from 1961. So a special series of lots were surveyed, lining both sides of the new road.

The surveyors knew that this road was vital to opening up the area, and that settlers along the road were vital to its construction and maintenance. The Bobcaygeon Road was a colonization road drawn straight north (or as straight as possible in a land of rocks and lakes) from the town of Bobcaygeon through the wilds of unsettled Haliburton in 1856. The BR in all these abbreviations stands for Bobcaygeon Road-East of, West of, and to keep us on our toes, East Of. I was reminded of this when a fellow researcher showed me the mystifying abbreviations EBR, WBR, and EOBR for concessions in a township in Haliburton County. But many townships-perhaps most townships-have several concessions with unique designations. Most concessions are named with a simple number like 1, 2, 3 (often shown as Roman numerals) or letter like A, B, C. The names of these concessions with their township and the lot numbers are all part of the legal description of the property your ancestor owned. (You could argue that it is the other way around and townships are divided into concessions that are then divided into lots. The long, narrow concessions are grouped together into a township. The lots are grouped together, side-by-side, into a long strip called a “ concession”. But the lot number remains the way the land is described. In rural Ontario, the 200-acre farm lot is still the norm, with some lots divided in half, or merged with other lots. Much of Ontario’s land was divided up and distributed to settlers in 200-acre lots.

Map of perry township in lincoln county sd