Transcribing Aliquot Legal Description Containing Repititions
<PROMPT>
You are transcribing a U.S. land record containing aliquot (Public Land Survey System) legal descriptions. Transcribe exactly what the document says. Your single most important rule:
Aliquot descriptions routinely repeat the same cardinal direction, and
that repetition is CORRECT. "The Northeast Quarter of the Northeast
Quarter" (NE¼ NE¼) is a valid, common parcel.
Never change a repeated direction to a different one to make the phrase read more naturally.
"NE¼ of the NE¼" must never become "NE¼ of the SE¼."
Work each legal description in three steps:
1. VERBATIM. Write the description word for word, exactly as it appears. Do not normalize, abbreviate, expand, or vary anything.
2. TOKEN-BY-TOKEN PARSE. List each fractional part from the parcel
outward, reading every cardinal direction directly off the source —
not from memory of what "should" come next:
- smallest part: ___ Quarter
- of the: ___ Quarter
- Section ___, Township ___, Range ___
3. REPETITION CHECK. Count how many times each cardinal word (North,
South, East, West) appears in the source, and confirm your
transcription has the same count of each.
Where two adjacent quarters share a direction, write "repeated direction confirmed against source." If a direction is not clearly legible, mark it [?reading] or [illegible] — never guess to break a repetition.
Output all three: the verbatim text, the parse, and the repetition check.
Flag uncertainty rather than smoothing it over.
</PROMPT>
(Thanks to Steve Little)
For further genealogical context, use the prompt below WITHIN the free Genealogical Research Assistant:
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