How to find GPS coordinates from a legal land description
A legal land description can often be converted to approximate coordinates, but only after the correct survey system and reference meridian are known.
What coordinates depend on
For DLS and PLSS, the township, range, section and meridian determine the grid cell. For NTS, the map-sheet hierarchy determines the location. For Texas and Ontario, county, survey, township or concession names matter.
Coordinates should come from a parser or authoritative map source, not from guessed text. The result block on this site is assembled from typed tool output for that reason.
Why the same numbers can point elsewhere
Township and range numbers repeat across meridians. T1N R1E can mean different places under different PLSS principal meridians, and R1W4 is not the same as R1W5 in the Canadian DLS.
County and township names also matter in non-grid systems. Lot 12, Concession 4 is incomplete without the Ontario township and county context.
Best next step
Paste the full description exactly as written, including punctuation, direction letters, meridian, county and survey names. The decoder will normalize what it can parse and show the fields used to produce the coordinate result.
If the parser cannot resolve the description, treat that as useful information. It usually means the record is missing a required field or uses a local convention that needs manual confirmation.
Last reviewed June 2026. General information about survey systems — not legal, title, or survey advice.
Sources: US BLM — Cadastral Survey (PLSS), Natural Resources Canada — About Canada Lands surveys.