Just as genealogists and historians use maps in their research, you certainly must in order to learn more about where your family members came from and where they went.
Understanding the topography can help you understand why families lived where they did and why the economy was as it was.
An interesting free website is Map Geeks (mapgeeks.org). It offers lots of maps and links to others. The website has not just maps of states and cities, but counties, city wards, parishes and Fire Insurance maps. There is a section “Mapping Family Trees” as well as “Solving Research Problems with Maps.” It answers “What are Surveys, Plats, and Land Maps. There are many other links to third party sites where maps are found. For Georgia, the Georgia Department of Transportation county maps are linked in, giving access to a map of every Georgia County. Some other Georgia maps come from the David Rumsey Map Collection. There is no end to the extent and variety of maps found there, for every state and county. This is a great source for everyone to tap into and see what you can learn to help with your research.
Familypedia is worth checking out
The website Familypedia has been around since 2004, but most people have never heard of it. Use Google or another search engine to find it. People have posted various family trees there, accessed by surname, and not limited to just English-surnamed families. It would be a good place to post a partial family tree, especially if you are trying to locate other people with the same family, in case they find it and get in touch. Many, but not all, have documentation attached. For each family featured, you can see it displayed several ways, including as a family tree or just a list of descendants. So if you find someone there you are interested in, it could be a gold mine. It’s worth a try.
Another DNA group link
In case you weren’t confused enough by all the DNA testing companies, now the fairly new Living DNA (livingdna.com) is teaming up with Find My Past (findmypast.com), both British based sites. It’s probably not a bad idea to check out Living DNA if your family roots are from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) as well as Ireland. Living DNA links you more specifically to a British locale.
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