Discerning the creation of the Lands & Surveys (L&S) map was not easy; however, it appears most likely to have been created by one or more employees of the Lands & Surveys Department, sometime after 1970, using grants on file, though we did not verify that each grant matches the L&S map.  

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We believe this mapset is a geographic display of the first land grants given by the Crown for land on Long Island—with the exception of when land was abandoned through commutation, or if it was escheated—in which case, someone documented the reissuance to a second grantee, and these appear on the L&S map. Most of the original land grantees (as opposed to the “Presumed Late Grantees) received their grants between 1788 and 1810. It should be noted that we identified spelling errors and inconsistencies in the names of grantees who were known through other records, the grants, and the Tatnall Map. Finally, we noted a number of parcels of land that were variously marked “Crown,” “VCL,” or “vacant,” and others that were totally blank—and we categorized these all as “Vacant Crown Land.” In these instances, when creating the digital interactive map, we used the Tatnall grantee name so as to know who the land originally belonged to.

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NOTE: We make no warranty of the accuracy of the maps on this website for legal purposes.