# How Land Is Surveyed in Kentucky: Reading a Legal Description > Kentucky land surveys explained for mineral owners: Nine patent series, overlapping claims, and one grid that is not federal. What the legal description on your deed or division order actually means, and where to look the records up free. Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/kentucky/ Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645. License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL. Land Surveys ยท Kentucky ## How land is surveyed in Kentucky Nine patent series, overlapping claims, and one grid that is not federal. Here is what the legal description on your deed, lease or division order is actually telling you, and where to check it for free. [Ask a Landman, Free](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [What Are My Minerals Worth?](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) **Kentucky uses mixed: metes and bounds, plus a state rectangular survey in the west.** Nine patent series, overlapping claims, and one grid that is not federal. ## No principal meridian Kentucky is not a federal PLSS state and has no principal meridian, including in the Jackson Purchase. ## The nine patent series Virginia Series before 1792, 9,441 surveys. Old Kentucky Series 1792 to 1815, 7,668. South of Green River from 1795, 16,664, which required the applicant to be at least 18, to have occupied for a year, and to have made an improvement such as a cabin or a crop. Tellico in southeastern Kentucky from 1810, 590, requiring six months residency for up to 200 acres. Kentucky Land Warrant Series from 1815, 26,080. South of Walker's Line from 1820, 4,327. West of Tennessee River Military 1821 to 1828, 242. West of Tennessee River non-military 1822 to 1900, 9,308. County Court Order Series from 1835 to the present, 70,238. ## The Jackson Purchase In 1820 the Kentucky General Assembly ordered the Jackson Purchase mapped according to the public land system, in ranges, townships and sections, under William T. Henderson, and non-military tracts were sold by quarter section using that method. The split matters: the West of Tennessee River Military patents used metes and bounds, and only the non-military patents issued after 1820 used the rectangular grid. ## What we see go wrong in Kentucky Kentucky's warrant system let claimants locate their own tracts, so eastern and central Kentucky patents overlap heavily. This is the classic shingled title, and a patent's existence is not proof of good title to the land it describes, because the senior conflicting entry wins. In the Jackson Purchase the opposite mistake happens. Heirs see Section 14, Township 2, Range 3, assume federal PLSS, and go looking at BLM. It is a Kentucky state survey with no principal meridian behind it, and the records are with the Secretary of State rather than with BLM. ## Where to look it up, free - [Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office](https://web.sos.ky.gov/land/). Free. All nine patent series, plus the Jackson Purchase Land Locator Deeds are with the county clerks. ### Send us the description and we will read it back to you. What it covers, how many net mineral acres it actually is, and whether anything is producing on it. Free, no obligation, and the answer does not change if you never sell anything to us. We do this every day and it usually takes us an hour. [Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/) ## Related - [How land is surveyed in every state we work in](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/) - [Kentucky mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/kentucky/) and the [Kentucky owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/kentucky/) - [How to find out if you own mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/find-out-if-you-own-mineral-rights/) - [Depth severance](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/depth-severance/) and [the Duhig rule](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/duhig-rule-overconveyance/) - [The mineral glossary](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/glossary/) Compiled from BLM, state land offices, state archives and statute, current as of 2026-08. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a licensed surveyor. Nothing here is a boundary opinion, and a description that matters to a transaction should be run by a title attorney or a licensed surveyor in the state where the land sits.