Hacienda Circle: Monday Maps

09 November 2009

Monday Maps

Click on the title today Monday Maps, then bookmark on your toolbar the mapping page that comes up -- it's an essential resource.

Because most records in the United States are kept at the county level, it is essential to know what county your ancestor lived in during a particular time. Their records will be found at the county seat of the county they lived in AT THE TIME the records were made despite earlier or later county boundary changes.

Boundary lines for towns, counties, and states evolve --e.g., some counties simply disappear or are are gobbled up and renamed as land in nearby towns or states -- we can lose our family records despite our ancestor never having moved.

My immigrant Cresap ancestor, Thomas, lived in Oldtown, Maryland for over 40 years. During that time he lived in the Maryland western territory, Frederick County, Washington County, and finally Allegany County. All that time he was in the same house on the same meadow.

First find your town either on Wikipedia or using the "Place" search on the The Family History Library catalogue page http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp I have the library catalogue bookmarked on my toolbar next to a folder marked maps where I keep the 101 site and other marvelous maps. The place search is a quick way to find what county a town is in.

Then use the FREE AND ESSENTIAL online map resource from Family History 101 at http://www.familyhistory101.com/map_county.html This is a great website for many reasons, but just play with the maps. Go to your state, pick a year, watch the county boundary changes, and find your folks.

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Note to Gilberts

All the ancestors posted on this blog belong to us all. Hacienda Circle lives. It is a place of our present with Jack & Roxanne there now, and it is a window into our past.

We are true American mutts -- a mixture from England, France, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and Germany.

Our DNA will, no doubt, reveal more counties of origin. I'll be adding information about this as I gather and understand it. but we already have two 37 marker matches (one with a Frank M. Cresap -- no surprise there!).

1. Thank you, Jack, for doing our Gilbert DNA.

2. Thank you, Karen (Cresap) Bach, for having your late father, Andrew Bruce Cresap, Jr., do our Cresap DNA.

3. Thank you, Maurice Walton, for doing our Walton DNA (via Granwilla's maternal grandfather, James Walton's line).

4. I did our mitochondrial DNA back through Mom, Pi, and our direct female line back. This line is also included in a family finder project at https://www.familytreedna.com/. This works by comparing our autosomal DNA to that of other people who have taken the test through FamilyTree. Our relationship with a match is calculated based on sharing linked segments of DNA. Although any two people from the same population may have some of their DNA in common, as a matching segment of DNA becomes longer and we share more segments, it becomes more likely that the sharing is due to a recent common ancestor than a chance match. Thus far we have five people who we are probably 4th cousins with, but we haven't figured out the exact connection.

Happy ancestoring!