Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Make an Ancestral Map

As part of my "Genealogy Vacations" presentation that I'm giving today at the Chula Vista Genealogical Society, I made a map showing the ancestral locations in the United States for my own ancestors and my wife's ancestors.

Here it is:



We have visited and done research in the light blue locations, and want to do research in the dark green (Linda's) and dark red (Randy's) locations. The size of the dots do not reflect the number of ancestral families in those locations, and I've used one dot to represent a general area, especially in New England.

I used Google Maps for this, and then spotted the points on the map using small circles in OpenOffice as part of my presentation. Using this technique, the dots are not spotted at exactly the right location, but it does provide a visual representation of ancestral places. I chose not to use the stickpins in google Maps because they were too big and would obscure the map below.

What other mapping website will do something similar, but better? I would appreciate any suggestions.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

excellent job, really interesting to follow the migration paths. and how your families criss crossed each other over this nation!

Unknown said...

When you are ready to work on Wisconsin and Montana let me know as I may have some of the information you will seek. Bonnie

Jane said...

I made a map showing the paths of one line of the family moving across the states. Not cmplete by any means (it was an example for a class);
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118159755642220938094.00043d7d0c53fcaeacf65&z=5


And this one shows the different branches with different push=pins. Some have pictures or documents attached. Needs work still, but, it's a start.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118159755642220938094.0000011235b4298058952&ll=52.975108,5.223999&spn=1.647315,4.938354&z=8

GrannyPam said...

I am not a big MS user, but Bing maps did allow me to do something similar on a local level. I noticed that if I zoom out to a national level, the last push pin in the local area shows up. I do not know if it is bigger or smaller than your dot. I haven't done more, but this does give some idea how this works. This is a long url and will wrap. I don't think I can shorten it, my test did not work.

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=44.250338~-85.393424&style=r&lvl=16&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&cid=EDE8DB44E9F79A3!120&encType=1

Joan Miller said...

Interesting! I should make a migration map!

Julie said...

This is a really great idea, Randy. Thanks for the tip!