For those who are interested in looking at the land once owned by their ancestors in the United States, there is a useful free application that can be used to locate the parcels on Google Earth if you have the survey information from the Public Land Survey System as recorded when they received title to their land from the government.
http://www.metzgerwillard.us/plss/plss.htmlFor example, searching the records I found that in 1911 William H. Ennis obtained 160 acres in Williams County, North Dakota from the government.
ENNIS WILLIAM H 05 156 N 095 W 017 160 251101 PA 168401 01/05/1911
http://files.usgwarchives.net/nd/williams/land/will-e2f.txt05 = the fifth principal meridian [the baseline of the survey]
156 N = the township #
095 W = the range #
017 = the section #
160 = 160 acres [a quarter section]
251101 PA = Homestead Act, land patent
168401 = account #
His property can be seen in the southwest quarter of section 17 in the 1914 plat map. This precise parcel can be seen on Google Earth by entering the data into the PLSS in Google Earth (PLSGE) application. Sadly, William's land now seems to have a fracking operation on it.
