StLGS August Meetings AND Registration for the Fall Speaker Series Opens!

We usually refer to the hot, humid, days of August as the "dog days of summer." But that doesn't mean you should be deprived of exciting genealogy events! Join us for these upcoming August meetings that should allow you to stay cool and learn at the same time! And registration is now open for our exciting hybrid Fall Speaker Series. Read on for all the details . . .

Mapping Rural and Urban Ancestors

As we bring our series of posts on prominent maps and mapping websites to a close, we want to mention two more important resources for genealogists. The first is a subscription website that may help you as you begin to collect more information on the locations in which your ancestors settled, especially if they were first landowners. Historygeo.com is a website that specializes in linking first landowners to maps so that you don’t have to do the plotting and linking yourself. It contains information on more than twelve million landowners in the thirty public land states, all linked to an interactive map, and, when you subscribe, you can personalize lists and add markers, migration routes, and other details of interest to you.

The site also contains a large collection of antique maps. You can browse the collection of all of the United States and some foreign countries, or you can search for exactly what you are looking for. 

The search function of the website is free and you may want to plug in some of your names to see if they show up. You will get a list of states and then, if you click a link, a list of counties where the names appear. The website also contains two lengthy tutorials (YouTube recordings) that you may want to watch to see if the collections are of relevance to you. There is currently no free trial, but you can subscribe for three months for $20, making it fairly easy to try the site out. In addition, some libraries, like St. Louis County Library, offer free access, so you should check with your local library.

As American cities grew in a rather topsy-turvy fashion during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fires became more of a hazard, and many building owners relied on fire insurance to save them from financial disaster. Fire insurance companies needed detailed maps of the areas they were protecting so they knew how to assign payments. For many years, the insurance companies sent people to inspect every property and to assess its risk for fire, but with the rapid growth in cities, that became impractical. The need for a better system inspired Daniel Alfred Sanborn to create the Sanborn Map Company in 1866 and within fifty years, it became the largest of the companies producing fire insurance maps.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Saint Louis, Independent City, Missouri. Sanborn Map Company, Jul, 1907. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn04858_003/.

What is special about these maps is their incredible detail of urban areas throughout the United States. The maps were produced in full color and included all outbuildings, homes, businesses, and public building, all done to scale. If you are researching urban ancestors between 1866 and the mid-twentieth century, the Sanborn maps will provide you with a captivating look at the neighborhoods in which they lived. You can see the places where they shopped, worshipped, went to school, and enjoyed a bit of recreation, all in relation to their homes.

“HistoryGeo.com and Sanborn Maps: Rural and Urban Map Research” in the StLGS Fall Speaker Series

Sanborn maps are widely available online and StLGS Systems Director, Bob Goode, will explain how you can access them as well as how you can make the most of the HistoryGeo.com website in the last of the four lectures in the StLGS Fall Speaker Series, “Mapping Our Ancestors,” which will take place live via Zoom on Saturday, 16 October 2021. Bob will help you discover how these two resources can enhance your knowledge of your ancestors.

Three additional presentations round out our Speaker Series on maps: an introduction to the earliest American migration trails, an overview of federal land records, plat maps, and plat books, and a detailed look at the map collections on the Library of Congress website. The Fall Speaker Series is coming soon, and you won't want to miss it. You can register for this exciting day of lectures now on the StLGS website!

Two Must-See Websites for Online Maps

At some point, almost every genealogist realizes that geography is as much a part of researching their family as history is. Pinpointing the location of Great-Grandpa Daniel's land is dependent on county boundaries, which were ever-changing for hundreds of years. Where the family settled was often determined by proximity to a source of fresh water, or perhaps the ability to acquire land cheaply. Migration routes followed set pathways of least resistance using rivers, mountain passes, and old hunting trails carved by Native Americans. Having a source at your fingertips for looking at old maps is important, so here are two of our favorite genealogy-oriented map sites.

David Rumsey Map Collection: https://www.davidrumsey.com/

One of the best online collections of maps is available on David Rumesy's Map Collection, which provides a vast assortment of maps from all over the world. The physical collection on which the website is based is housed at the Stanford University Library. Currently, the online collection has more than 95,000 maps, ranging from the sixteenth century to the present and encompassing almost the entire globe as well as the sky and the seas. The home page has dozens of links to all parts of the collection, and that's where you will want to start your search. Scroll down to the center of the page and click on any of the small square icons to search a predetermined category.

Alternatively, you can go to the alphabetical list of maps or browse by category. To access either, use the tab called View Collection in the navigation bar at the top of the home page. Now you can narrow your search by specifics to find exactly what you might want.  The resulting search screen will show you what is available in the category in which you searched and offer you more options for narrowing down, if you need to.

 

The site has numerous ways to view and save maps. It also has ways to overlay old maps onto new and to utilize Google Earth and Google Maps in very creative ways. You will want to bookmark this site (or add to your favorites) so you can keep going back!

Map of US.org: https://www.mapofus.org/

Another real necessity for genealogists is the ability to see United States county boundary lines as they changed over time and, although there are many fancier county progression maps online, this website is also a treasure trove of much more. Everything about this site is simple and easy, but don't be deceived. There is an abundance of detail hidden beneath the plain façade.

The home page has no bells or whistles, just a list of states and some explanation of why maps are helpful. Click on any state of interest, however, and let the fun begin. Scroll down to get the interactive map of changing county borders and click the "play" button to watch the counties form. You can hit the "stop" button at any time to read the text and view the list of dates and links to individual counties. These links take you to the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website (where volunteers are waiting to help.

But don't stop there. Keep scrolling down on each state's page for additional resources. Some states have highway maps of each county (at press time, however, both Missouri and Illinois had non-working links on their maps) and some states have links to other websites with historical maps. There are also links to many other state maps and atlases. 

The navigation bar at the top of the page will take you to additional maps of the U.S. and to a range of historical atlases. You will have no shortage of links to explore on Map of US.org!

These are just two of our favorite online map websites that can help you locate locate your ancestors. Enjoy!