{"id":3757,"date":"2013-07-10T18:24:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T23:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/?p=3757"},"modified":"2013-07-22T17:57:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T22:57:20","slug":"family-history-through-the-alphabet-x-marks-the-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/family-history-through-the-alphabet-x-marks-the-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Family History Through the Alphabet – X Marks the Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For 26 weeks I will take you on a family history journey through the alphabet, one letter at a time.\u00a0 I have decided that each post will be educational in nature, focusing on topics related to resources, methodology, tools, etc.\u00a0 Although the challenge is complete, there are still some people who are finishing up and Alona, the host, is encouraging others to participate anyway.\u00a0 Additional information on the challenge, can be found at Take the \u2018Family History Through the Alphabet\u2019 Challenge<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

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\"x\"This week it\u2019s all about maps.\u00a0 I love maps.\u00a0 They are great tools for genealogists and often help us solve research problems.\u00a0 In this post, I\u2019ll share a few examples of how I use maps in my own research.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Plotting Land Owners<\/h6>\n

For rural dwellers, creating a map of our ancestors can be very helpful.\u00a0 We can visually see what parcels of land a they owned and who their neighbors were.\u00a0 This can help solve many mysteries.\u00a0 For example, when I plotted out part of a township where both my fifth great-grandfathers, Aaron Webster and Robert Parks, owned land in Oakland County, Michigan, I saw several familiar surnames.\u00a0 One of Aaron\u2019s daughters married Zadock Bates and the other married Erastus or Orestes Millard.\u00a0 Both of these surnames appear in close proximity to the land that Aaron owned, so it\u2019s possible that the daughters\u2019 spouses are related to those nearby families.\u00a0 I created a map by simply drawing it out using the land descriptions for all the federal land grants in the sections I was interested in.<\/p>\n

\"OC-map\"<\/p>\n

In another instance, I was trying learn the origin of an Iowa family, who had apparently previously lived in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.\u00a0 Using the 1885 Iowa census, which includes the place of birth for each person, as well as a land description, I decided to plot the family\u2019s neighbors who were in the same place and the same time in hopes of finding connections between the families in other locations.\u00a0 For example, one neighboring family had a child born in Missouri in 1874, as did my family.\u00a0 While I haven\u2019t been able to actually solve this mystery, I am hopeful that researching the neighbors further will be of help.\u00a0 Again, this one is a hand-drawn map, but I only plotted families with similarities to my family (I can always go back and add in the rest).<\/p>\n

\"LinnCoMap\"<\/p>\n

Plotting City Residences<\/h6>\n

In addition to my rural folks, I have a lot of city dwellers, particularly in Chicago.\u00a0 I use Google Maps<\/a> all the time for various reasons.\u00a0 For example, plotting the family on a map can help you figure out what churches to search.\u00a0 I had my Ward\/McMahon family mapped out for different reasons (comparing locations to other possible family members), but when the Catholic church records for Chicago<\/a> became available through FamilySearch<\/a>, I decided it was time to do some digging, but I had no idea where to begin.<\/p>\n

Looking at the map I had already created, I began to go through all of the Catholic churches listed at ChicagoAncestors<\/a> and determine where each had been located and the years of operation (I could have used city directories for this as well).\u00a0 Once I identified a possible church, I plotted it on the map.\u00a0 If I found that an event had occurred for the family, I added the details to the map\u2019s location description.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the map I created.\u00a0 If you click through to view it on Google, you will see the descriptions of all the pins and see how I have it organized by family and year.<\/p>\n