Maps are one of my favorite things. I still have the very first map that we could call our own. It was a Rand-McNally book atlas of all the states that I redeemed S & H Green stamps for. We used this map for many years along with local maps that we purchased or picked up at gas stations and the AAA office. We moved a bit in our early marriage and the first thing we needed in our new location was always a map. In the car, my title became Navigator. Later, when we started taking out of state vacations, they were always driving trips. Off to Barnes and Nobles for that state's map. We hardly ever got lost, well, at least in a car. But that is another story.
One of our trips was actually partially planned to visit the Cold Harbor Battlefield in Virginia so that I could visit the site where my 3rd great grandfather, John Border Amos, fought with the 55th PA Infantry. He was wounded there and that was the end of his time with the 55th. When we were in the Visitor Center talking with the Park Ranger to find out where on the battlefield he may have been, she showed us some maps and told us how to find the spot. You will breathe his air she said. Yay! We found the spot and I could not resist purchasing copies of the maps as well. I am far from a Civil War expert, but I do like looking at these maps and seeing how detailed they were and being able to point to a spot and say he was right there.
Now, I use our maps to find places that an ancestor lived and wish that I had known of that ancestor when I was in their neighborhood. Today, I use Google maps to go places but it was way more fun to actually plan and map out our trips and sidetrips with the paper ones. Or deviate from the plan if something more interesting came up. I often wonder how our ancestors went west without a map, just following a worn trail or blazing their own. Sounds intimidating. But they managed and more places ended up on maps because of them. Old historical maps are cool because the land, as in roads and streets or lack of, and place names may have been different 100 years ago.
Genealogy is kind of like a map too. A map of your family that sometimes takes unexpected turns and ends at surprising destinations. More often, the maps I refer to for genealogy are now online. I can zoom in and see details a little better, but I miss the feel of the paper. So I keep the paper ones.
Happy traveling!
P.S. - The morning after I wrote this, a map appeared in my Facebook feed from a historical group that I follow. I immediately recognized it as a later map of the location where my husband's 4th great grandfather and his brother, Jacob & Joseph Sinton, owned a general store from the early 1800's to about 1847. This map was from 1850. I have some old news articles about the history of this store and went back to read them and one gave the name of the person who bought the property in 1847. That name was on this 1850 map. Bennett. I always knew it was on this town square, but this gives a little more perspective than just knowing what is there today. Now I can pinpoint the exact location of the store and what was around it at the time.
Love reading your blogs and learning more about family history
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteLove your post and such interesting maps. Are the names on the Civil War map the unit commanders? What was the difference between the boxes with and without an x?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes they are. The boxes first, the larger the box, the higher up in the designation. The Army heirarchy goes like this - Army, Corps, Division, Brigade, Regiment, and Company. Army, Corps and Division boxes have an x. In my map example where I placed the circle, the box with the x and the name Martindale is a Division and Martindale was it's commander. In the boxes to it's left with no x, those are Brigades and the Brigade commander's name. Also Blue for Union and red for Confederates. The two battle lines were less than 1/2 mile apart or less in some spots on this map according to the map scale. Thanks for the great question!
ReplyDeleteIf you snip the picture of the store then put it into a Word document, right click and the last option is Format Picture. You can then lighten it, reduce the saturation and sharpen it (using Picture Corrections and Picture Colour. Then right click on the new picture and Save As a jpg. You will still have the original in the newspaper cutting but a second picture where you can see the building better.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carol! Photo editing is not my strong point. I will give it a try tho.
ReplyDelete