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The Geography of Genealogy
Where did your family come from? Where did they settle? Where did they move to after that? Maps can often point you in the right direction.
Old and new maps can help you track down information about your family. Actual birth, death, and property records are usually kept in state or county offices. If you have a general idea where a relative lived, a map of the area may confirm the name of the county and where records about the people who lived there may be kept. These archived records can provide all sorts of terrific information.
But don’t rush off to find the latest, most complete map. Place names have been known to change over the years. A map dating back to when your relative was alive is likely to be of more help. It would show the old, possibly original name of towns and their boundaries back then. In early America, the boundary lines of townships and even states were flexible. You don’t want to waste time researching a relative who, according to some record, lived in Connecticut, only to find out that the area was then a part of Rhode Island. State lines now are pretty much set, but county and town names, and even boundary lines, are still changed or adjusted from time to time.
Did you ever imagine your great-great grandmother on a camel?!
What about world maps? Depending on where your ancestors are from, finding the proper map may even be more important. Over the years, countries have also changed names; for example, Ceylon to Sri Lanka (l972), Northern Rhodesia to Zambia (l964), and British Guiana to Guyana (l966). More recently, the countries that became part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Russia, generations ago went back to their old names—or took on new ones—when the “Soviet bloc” broke up in 1989. And changes still go on today in various parts of the world; Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and in 2016 the Czech Republic made Czechia the official shortened name in English.
Look for older maps in atlases, libraries, county or city offices, or online at historical map sites. If you can’t find what you need, try looking online for information on specific place names. A search for “U.S. place names,” for example, will bring you to a helpful site with free look-ups. Not only can you search and get information on just about every place name, you can click to see an aerial view of the site!
THE GEOGRAPHY TRAIL
Here’s your chance to really play detective. Look for clues, those details in the maps that may bring your ancestors to life. If you know an ancestor lived somewhere near Phoenix, Arizona, look for any maps that will show you, in the greatest detail, the area where your ancestor lived. Look for locations within a county. Keep an eye out for maps that show the borders of neighboring areas. Courthouses or county offices in those areas might be good places to look for information about your relatives.
Some places are very difficult to find. It’s not just that they may have changed their name. Some townships were simply too small to show up on a map. Others may have died out, becoming ghost towns that aren’t on modern maps at all. That’s where old maps are helpful. You can also find lists of things like abandoned post offices, which could offer important clues for you. If you know the neighborhood or street where an ancestor lived, you may find it! Try to find a map that was created around the time your ancestor was alive. That’s likely to be the most helpful. You can find this kind of map at local libraries or museums. Ask the librarian or historical society for help. And you can find lots of maps online. Take a look at www.oldmapsonline.org.
Maybe some of your ancestors grew up on a farm, too.
MAPS CAN TELL YOU
1. How your relatives lived
Maps can show you if an area was densely populated or rural, if there were many highways, or if it was mountainous. You can get an idea where your relatives were born, lived, attended school, worked, shopped, voted, traveled over land or water, raised families, and were laid to rest. Later maps of the same area might help you track down their children, and their children’s children. Maybe you’ll turn up some third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cousins you didn’t know about.
2. What the land looked like
With certain types of maps, called “relief maps,” you can see whether your relatives lived in the mountains or on hilly terrain or near small rivers or lakes. Relief maps may show conditions that would make moving or traveling to other areas difficult. Rivers that have bridges now may not have had them when your family lived nearby. Your relatives may have traveled the river by boat because it was easier than making their way on land through dense forests. Your ancestors may have even used the river to bring produce to market or go to school! Compare an old map to more modern ones, and you’ll be able to see when and where new roads or bridges sprang up.
3. What your ancestors might have done for a living
If they lived near the ocean, maybe family members were fishermen. People often worked where they lived, so consider each bit of information you uncover a valuable clue, and go from there. Turning up relatives in a mining town probably meant that they worked in the mines. If you think an ancestor who lived in a heavily wooded area in Oregon in the early 1900s was a logger, and you haven’t yet searched census records, why not try an online search for “Oregon loggers 1900s”? Maybe you’ll discover some interesting information about him there.
4. What your ancestors did for fun
Maps can give tantalizing clues. Maybe your kin slid down grassy or snowy slopes on makeshift sleds, hiked or explored inviting caves in nearby hills, hunted in the woods, or swam in surrounding lakes. A special occasion may have meant a trip to town to catch the latest styles, or a reason to get together for a dress-up dance party. If your ancestors lived in the middle of the prairie with no neighbors nearby, they still could have read or made music and sung and laughed together. And at night, they might have sat outside and pointed out pictures they imagined in the stars.
WHAT’S IN A (PLACE) NAME?
Many place names are similar or even the same (the U.S. has about eighty-five places called Springfield). This can make your work harder. Even if a relative mentions that his grandmother lived in Tioga County, it doesn’t mean it’s Tioga County, New York. There’s also a Tioga County in Pennsylvania. New Jersey alone has four different places called Washington. Which is the one where an ancestor lived?
When faced with place names, you’ll need specifics and will need to dig deeper. Use any clues you may find. Maybe one of those four places was on a rocky hillside while another bordered a lake. If an ancestor wrote in her diary, “Went swimming again this morning. I’m so happy we live near a lake!” you can smile—you’ve probably found the correct Washington; but check out the other two, just in case. Pulling clues together and making connections is what makes you a good detective.
So future generations can see who lived where, why not map your family’s movements? You can do this online with a digital map program, if you like, or you can make something to hang on your walls! When you’re done, photos of the map can be tucked away for safekeeping in your big family scrapbook. Be sure to make extras. Family members will certainly be asking for copies of their own.
WHAT YOU NEED:
map of the world or the country your family primarily lived in
copies of photographs
yarn or string
scissors
clear removable tape or pushpins
WHAT TO DO:
1. Spread out the map and hang it on the wall.
2. Using clear tape, affix a small photo (or photo copies) on the map where each family member lives (or lived).
3. Using a section of yarn, connect the children of a family to their parents. For example, if your great-grandparents lived in Utah, but their son moved with his family to Maine, attach a strip of yarn connecting the photo of the grandparents in Utah to the son and his family in Maine. If your family is more spread out, you can connect parents who live in Hong Kong with their five children: a son in Los Angeles, another in Sydney, Australia, and daughters in a suburb of Paris, one in Boston, and the youngest in Boulder, Colorado.