Saturday, November 16, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Show Us Your Visited States and Provinces Map

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1) What states in the USA and what provinces in Canada have you visited or lived in?  


2)  Either list, or make a map of them (at the http://www.defocus.net/visitedstates/us-canada.html website) and indicate the following:

*  red for states/provinces where you've not spent much time or seen very much.
*  amber for states/provinces  where you've at least slept and seen some sights.
*  blue for states/provinces  you've spent a lot of time in or seen a fair amount of.

*  green for states/provinces  you've spent a great deal of time in on multiple visits.

3)  For extra credit, you could make a map to show where your ancestors resided at any time (e.g., in 1900), or perhaps where your 16 great-great-grandparents or 32 3rd-great-grandparents married, or where your ancestors were born, all with an appropriate legend.

4)  Tell us, or show us, your "Where I've been" map, and any other map that you created having fun tonight.  Put them in your own blog post, on Facebook or Google+, and leave a comment on this blog post so that we all see them.

Here are my maps:

1)  My "Where I've been" map of the United States and Canada:



So I've been to 40 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.  I have ancestral localities in Iowa and Nebraska and definitely want to visit there someday.  

I've only lived in California, but have made more than five trips to the other green states (hmm, maybe Hawaii and New Hampshire should be green too!).

2)  I decided to show where my 16 great-great grandparents resided at the time of their marriage.  The scale I used is:

*  red for states/provinces where 1 or 2 resided at marriage.
*  amber for states/provinces where 3 or 4 resided at marriage.
*  blue for states/provinces where 5 or 6 resided at marriage.
green for states/provinces where 7 or more resided at marriage.



I have 1 state (Massachusetts) where four of my great-great-grandparents resided at marriage, and 4 states and one province where 2 resided, and another 2 that married in England.  These marriages occurred in the 1840 to 1865 time frame.

3)  I decided to show the 3rd great-grandparents too (same scale):

*  red for states/provinces where 1 or 2 resided at marriage.
*  amber for states/provinces where 3 or 4 resided at marriage.
*  blue for states/provinces where 5 or 6 resided at marriage.
green for states/provinces where 7 or more resided at marriage.


Now I have 8 that resided in Massachusetts, and 4 that resided in 4 states and one province, and 4 that resided in England.  

The England folks migrated to Connecticut in 1855, and the Ontario folks migrated from New York and New Jersey.

4)  A map of where my ancestors from my parents back through the 3rd great-grandparents (62 ancestors) were born - with a scale of:

*  red for states/provinces where 1 or 2 were born.
*  amber for states/provinces where 3 or 4 were born.
*  blue for states/provinces where 5 to 8 were born.
green for states/provinces where 9 or more were born.



On this map, out of the 62 persons from my parents back to the 3rd great-grandparents, I have 16 born in Massachusetts, 8 born in England, 7 born in New York and Pennsylvania, 6 born in Rhode Island and Connecticut, 5 in Ontario, etc.  The 1 in Quebec is my one French-Canadian ancestor who married in Ontario.

That was fun!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-show-us.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

6 comments:

GeneGinny said...

Love it! Thanks for another fun mapping exercise, Randy. Here's my contribution: http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2013/11/sngf-geneamaps.html
Sorry I don't have time to keep playing.

Yvonne Demoskoff said...

I've done my maps, Randy! http://yvonnesgenealogyblog.blogspot.ca/2013/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-show-us.html

Unknown said...

That was fun, and something that I've meaning meaning to do for quite a while. And I'd really like to do an international travels version.
One of these days I may get to Alaska. For 30 years it has been the lone blank spot on my US travel log.
See my Facebook, Greg Montllor

Mel said...

I feel like the least traveled person. My ancestors saw more of the US than I have.

Thanks for this challenge, Randy!
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2013/11/sngf-where-on-the-map/

T said...

Are you aware of this web site for transcribed Iowa newspapers? http://www.iowaoldpress.com/ Not a lot for some counties but worth a look. Also this one that links to ancestry http://www.gendisasters.com/ia/newspapers.htm

Sierra said...

My post is a little late.

http://upinthetree.com/blog/2013/11/17/saturday-night-fun-on-sunday/

Thanks for this- it was a fun trip down memory lane.