Category: Research Resources

Explorer Makes Access to USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection Easy

A screen grab of the 1904 map showing Newport. Notice the timeline at the bottom showing other available products.
A screen grab of the 1904 map showing Newport. Notice the timeline at the bottom showing other available products.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Esri, a geographic information technology company, have partnered to make the enormous collection of the Survey’s map readily available to everyone.  While these resources have been downloadable on the Internet since September 2011, this new, user-friendly website provides convenient access to the “Historical Topographic Map Collection.”

This new interface or explorer is a significant improvement over the original system, which was more complicated.  The explorer brings to life more than 178,000 maps from 1884 to 2006, allowing users to easily access geo-referenced images, which can also be used in web mapping applications.  The timeline allows visitors to easily explore the collection by place, time, and scale, and the sheets are easily downloaded.

Use of the landing page is simple.  Visitors enter the desired location in a query box, and once you click on the map a convenient timeline comes up, showing the survey for that place.  The user is able to visual see the products that were produced over time and move along the line to see the changes over time.

Check this out, as you will find lots to help with your local and family history research

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A BRIEF VIDEO DEMONSTRATING THE USE OF THE EXPLORE

 

 

 

Online Historic Aerial Maps Aid Delaware Researchers

Aerial maps of Delaware, spanning from 1937 to the present, are available in an online digital archives maintained by the Delaware Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center.  Initially captured during flights flown over the region, the photography shows what the region looked like at various points.  Typically termed orthophotography once the data has been geocorrected, the pictures were used in local map making.

This virtual service is helpful to local history researchers and genealogists.  It allows investigators to easily acquire detailed visual representations showing the nature of development of parcels for a period of over a century, which is a valuable tool for finding old homes, cemeteries, roads, streams and much more.  It is also a strong source for studying the evolution of communities and rural areas throughout the 20th century.

Simply by clicking the mouse on the desired sector of the map, the virtual visitor has access to aerial images.  They show how the land appeared in 1937, 1954, 1961, 1968, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2010

Here is the link to the homepage with instructions.

hartly 1968
Part of the aerial map of Hartly, Delaware, 1968. Source: The Delaware Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Center

Eastern Shore of Virginia Newspapers Online

Special collections institutions continue to digitize newspaper collections rapidly, making them openly available to researchers. These valuable resources aid genealogists, local historians, and public scholars in digging into the past. On those old pages are many print columns about the local community and the people.

While doing fieldwork on Lower Delmarva, I recently needed access to Eastern Shore of Virginia newspapers.  Specifically, I wanted the Peninsula Enterprise, an Accomac, Northampton County, VA weekly.  My first step, a Google query took, me to the Library of Virginia, which has created word searchable, e-copies of this serial, spanning the years 1881 to 1910.

The site has plenty of additional titles, as “this collection contains 48,934 issues comprising over 300,000 pages.  In addition to the online resource, the Library of Virginia offers an array of sources for researching newspapers from its broad collection of over 3,000 titles.”

“The Virginian Newspaper Project, established in 1993, has worked to locate, describe, inventory, preserve and provide public access to United States imprints housed thorough out the commonwealth,” according to the website.

Click here to go to the Virginia newspaper page.   Click here for other digital resources available from the Library.

“The Library is one of the oldest agencies of Virginia government, founded in 1823 to preserve and provide access to the state’s incomparable printed and manuscript holdings.”

peinsula enterprise, eastern shore of Virginia newspaper.
The Peninsula Enterprise, Accomac, Northampton County, VA, a Virginia newspaper published on the Eastern Shore

 

A Research Resource Shows Family Name Distribution Patterns

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An interesting page on Ancestry.com presents aggregated statistical surname data from an array of standard primary genealogical research materials. 

Drawing on sources such as census schedules, the Social Security Index, Civil War Enlistment papers, immigration records, and more, users query the searchable databases for surnames. 

In graphical and tabular formats, the inquiry yields information on where families lived in the U. S. and U.K., average life expectancy, occupations, service in the Civil War, and much more.  Family history data of this type, particularly the origin and distribution patterns over time, may offer clues to the geographical location of families and is interesting to family historians.

Distribution of PIckel family name in the 1840 census.
Distribution of PIckel family name in the 1840 census.

Here is an example for the surname Pickel.  In the 1840 census, families with that name were concentrated in Pennsylvania, but there were clusters in New York, Ohio, and Indiana.  In subsequent decades (1880 and 1920), the family spreads out across the growing nation, but a strong concentration remains in the original areas.  When the Civil War split the nation, the Ancestry records identify 82 Pickels serving the Union while 28 fought with the Confederates.

Lots of information is easily aggregated here so check it out.  The aggregated statistical data can give some idea of where to focus research and is interesting.  Of course Ancestry hopes the curious types surfing over that way subscribe in order to view the detailed data.

Click here to go to the page.

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