A New Solution For Solving Genealogy Mysteries
Guest writer: Del Kahre
Note from editor: Del is sharing all the possibilities for problem solving genealogy on his website https://www.genealogy4d.com.
Do you have a brick wall in your family research? After 20 years of research I ran out of ideas on every branch of my tree. I saw significant progress but still so many unanswered questions. I decided to document all of the events I already knew on a map. In the process of geocoding my research I discovered all kinds of new clues, information, life stories, neighbors and relationships. Only knowing the county or town where they lived was not enough information. I became convinced that knowing the exact neighborhood or building where my ancestors lived was absolutely essential. There was a gold mine of hidden information I had never seen until I accurately geocoded my genealogy. I realized that my geographical DNA was just as important as my biological DNA in learning the truth about my unique place in history.
There are many fantastic mapping solutions and strategies available online. I have used all these tools in my family research. While each different tool helps tremendously there are limits to each one. Even with the help of these tools, it was very time-consuming to locate my families’ lives and put them on the map. Each tool only helped with a small part of the process, and I wished for a better solution to mapping my family. The idea for Genealogy4D was born. Since that time I have collected over 10 million U.S. records from public historical databases and personally indexed over 350,000 records from historical maps and city directories all over the United States. All of this is combined into a single map for exploration and discovery. The website is free to use and contains all kinds of research tools and aids. It has many benefits that no other website or solution has ever been able to do. Let’s look at some traditional genealogical mapping tools and compare their pros and cons.
- Modern Maps (Examples: Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Street View, ESRI)
These are excellent tools for genealogy research. The maps, satellite imagery, and street-level photography allow me to visualize any area on the globe. I can also use them to build my own story map with my own markers and media. Then I can share my map for free so others can browse it. These maps are extremely helpful for any research task. However, they only contain a very small amount of historical information. I can see historical satellite imagery, but only in rare cases is it more than 50 years old. Though I can easily find the nearest coffee shop, I cannot view any historical addresses or locations through these services. There are many ghost towns and other historical places that are not shown on these maps. Sometimes the interface to build my own map is not easy to learn or share with others.
Genealogy4D is based on these same map providers so I can get all the same benefits of satellite imagery and street-view as if I went directly to those sites. But in addition, I will see all of the historical data from hundreds of genealogical sources presented on the same maps. It also offers a free guided tours feature to allow me to create my tour. The historical data makes it easy for me to make these tours because I can add any of our ten million markers to my tour. I can add my own description and media to share my story with my friends and family. I can also see my own location on the map to help me easily find all of these places when I am traveling.
- Historical Maps and Atlases (Examples: David Rumsey, HistoricalMapWorks, Library of Congress, Ancestry, Sanborn Maps)
Historical maps and atlases are found online for almost any location, and they contain a wealth of useful information. They make beautiful mementos for my wall or family story. I can also use some of tools to overlay these historical maps over modern maps and compare them. However, there are many limitations with these maps. First, they are usually broken up into small sections by page and contain a small amount of information constrained by place or time. Most counties in the United States only have one or two historical atlases–if any–that were ever produced. The names on the map were out of date before the atlas even went to print. In the time it took them to produce the map a large amount of the land owners changed. Second, when overlaying or comparing maps side by side I can only really visualize two maps at once. Trying to compare three or four sources at the same time is nearly impossible. Finally, many of these historical maps such as Sanborn Fire Insurance maps are interesting for finding historical street addresses or businesses. But very few of them have any private property ownership information at all. They do not contain enough useful data for me to easily map my family without a lot of additional research.
Genealogy4D is unique because it overlays data from dozens and dozens of different sources all onto the same map. I can also use the filters to show or hide information that is useful for my research. There is data from hundreds of these same historical atlases already located on the map. There are also historical city directories in some cities along with information from Sanborn Fire Insurance maps already located. Each marker has a directly link to the original source so I can easily find the original information for additional comparisons.
- County Boundaries (Examples: Newberry Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, RandyMajors.com, mapofus.org)
For research in the United States, knowing county boundary changes is absolutely essential to family research. I need to know where the records for my family were stored and county boundary changes effected where I might go to find them. These tools allow me to view all of these boundary changes with interactive maps. However, there is one problem with them. If I don’t know exactly where my family lived these changes may not have impacted them at all. In fact, if my family didn’t live on a certain side of the county I may be on a wild-goose chase completely in the wrong direction. I would actually have more chances of finding conflicting records and wrong information.
In Genealogy4D, I can click on any marker on the map to get full details about that location. The Boundary Changes tool will build a custom list of boundary changes for that location. I can click on each change in the list and see the boundary on the map. This may be a different list across the street. So having the boundary changes customized for each location gives me the precise list of counties and dates for my research. Also, I can see where other people in the same neighborhood should be found in the county records.
10,000 data points include historical events, surveys, buildings, properties, and land records.
- Family Tree Mapping (Examples: FamilySearch Map My Ancestor, Ancestry DNA, RootsMapper, FamilyNexus)
There are many tools emerging to allow us to map our family data or DNA matches. They are wonderful for general presentations and learning about our family stories. They are compelling and very fun to explore. The information is based on crowd-sourced data. The only data on the map is data that other users like myself have entered into them. If the person entering the data was not accurate enough in their description, the information may be many miles away from the actual event. Also, some families might have huge amounts of information mapped and others may have none. These tools usually do not include other historical information such as historical events, surveys, buildings, properties, land records, etc.
Genealogy4D offers me a way to combine my family information with a huge database of locations from hundreds of different sources. The discipline of adding my family events to the map encourages me to accurately place in the precise location of the event instead of just guessing or approximating. This allows others to use Genealogy4D to drive directly to these locations and see them for themselves. This opens up my family story to a whole new level of excitement when people can actually see and walk to these same locations themselves.
- Geocoding Sites (Examples: Waymarking.com, Whatwasthere.com, Roadtrippers.com)
These are also great crowd-sourcing tools for geolocating information. However, none of these are specifically dedicated to genealogy. They can be a great source of interesting information when I travel but are very limited in helping me solve research problems or tell my family story.
- Land Records Tools: (Examples: BLM, earthpoint.us)
These tools and many others allow me to locate land records and land survey locations. However, they can only show me one property at a time on the map. Seeing all of the surveys together on a single map is faster and easier to locate my property. Genealogy4D contains the same data as these sites but shows all of it on the map at the same time. Then I can compare it with data from other sources.
- Cemetery Mapping: (Examples: Billion Graves, Find-a-Grave)
Genealogy4D does have a large number of cemeteries located on the map. I can also document my ancestors’ graves by adding my own markers. I found sites such as BillionGraves.com are much better and more comprehensive for this type of mapping. I think these are the best solutions for grave marking because I also get the benefit of the crowd-sourced data. However, for the same reasons I find these sites useful, Genealogy4D offers me the exact same benefits of documenting my ancestors when they were alive.
I found so many benefits to geocoding my family. Accurately placing every event in my family history on the map made me a better researcher and made my research better. It helped me to locate all kinds of new pieces to my family history puzzle. Genealogy4D helps make this easier and more rewarding. You can get started at https://www.genealogy4d.com.
Also, Del is very responsive if you have questions about using his site. Have you been able to use it to break down a brick wall?
