Really quite slick, except for the part where they email you the download link.

"The sale of Crown Land was the principal source of government revenue for funding emigration and public works. An orderly system of land survey, therefore, was essential to promote sales and to simplify the recording of ownership. The South Australian survey system was the chief means by which the Wakefieldian ideals of the colony's initial promoters were perpetuated."

"The Dominion Land Survey (DLS) is the method used to divide most of Western Canada into one-square-mile sections for agricultural and other purposes. It is based on the layout of the Public Land Survey System used in the United States, but has several differences."

"The Land Survey Information System is the official government Web site for the distribution of the Public Land Survey System of the United States. The Bureau of Land Management cadastral survey program is responsible for the official boundary surveys for all federal agencies in the U.S. that together manage over 700 million acres. The Public Land Survey System also called the Rectangular Survey System is the foundation for many survey-based land information systems."
You can "Download PLSS data in NAD 83 shape file format that can be used with GIS applications. & Export Survey points, Points/Lines, and Control Points in kml, gps, list, and GeoRSS formats. "

basic background from the National Atlas

Welcome to SiteMart, New Jersey's Online Searchable Database for Brownfield Properties

"everyone owns what they create, but everything supplied by nature, most importantly land, belongs equally to all humanity." Monopoly was invented by a Georgist. (Arden, DE looking interesting)

building records/violations for nyc

property records for NYC