BACKSIGHT

Sight back to the original record.

Original land-records research for Texas surveyors, landmen, and title professionals. Start from a deed, an address, or an abstract — Backsight assembles the original survey, the GLO archive sketch maps, the land-grant patents, and the county CAD parcel cross-check into one organized, citable package.

Anchor

Resolve any starting point — deed, situs address, abstract number, or a point on the ground — to the original survey: block, section, abstract, original grantee.

Retrace

Pull the General Land Office record for that survey: archive sketch files, rolled and working sketches, and the land-grant patent files — with file numbers to disambiguate scrip.

Package

Everything lands in a structured folder — manifest, contact sheet, GeoJSON parcel, source citations — ready for the job file or the courthouse.

Original surveys

Survey → abstract → patentee resolution across every Texas county, from the OTLS layer.

Sketch maps

GLO sketch files, rolled sketches, and working sketches — found spatially and by name, fetched at full resolution.

Land grants

Patent files from the Land Grant Database, matched to the deed by file number, flagged when only orderable on paper.

Parcel cross-check

Statewide CAD parcels anchor small platted lots and surface owner / legal-description mismatches against the deed.