Alan E. Mann, A.G.
alan.familyhistory@gmail.com Accredited
Genealogist
BYU
Annual Computerized Genealogy Conference www.alanmann.com/articles
GeoGenealogy:
Geography for Genealogists
Geography can be a genealogist’s best friend.
Understanding the geography leads to understanding jurisdictions, which helps locate records. It also can assist or suggest a
direction for research. Atlases at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/
and gazetteers at http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=133:1:1966716235342276351
and www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/didyouknow/
are great examples of geography resources online. As good as they are, they are merely great reference tools where you can look
up the desired information. Another good tool, is the
England Jurisdiction project from the Family History Library. It has tremendously
valuable data, but is still just data. An early application that attempts to
make this data more useable can be seen at www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHL/frameset_library.asp?PAGE=english_probate_jurisdictions.asp.
One demonstration of a way to present this data is the ArcGis
product, available on the Family History Library Patron Desktop. As good as
this is, we need to apply some imagination to think of what else could be done
with this data.
The future of such a project might be to enter a
place name, a family name, and a rough time period. The program would then
identify the place, find records from that place or other places nearby, search
those records for the name I supplied, and return the information from the
records. This would be possible if the location data were geocoded
and the records themselves were indexed (both of which are being done now…)
This session will focus on new ways of providing
useful geographic information over the web through geocoding,
geotagging, and mashups.
GeoCoding
A geocode is a
geographical code to identify a point or area at the surface of the earth. (Courtesy of Wikipedia). The code systems can be described
by:
* how the area is coded (number, letter, mixture of both,
other)
* which part of the earth is covered (whole earth, land,
water, a continent, a country)
* what kind of area or location is coded (country, county,
airport, railstation, city, ...)
* whether an area or a point is coded
* time for which the code is valid
Geocoding is the process of assigning geographic identifiers (e.g., codes or
geographic coordinates expressed as latitude-longitude) to map features and
other data records, such as street addresses. You can also geocode
media, for example where a picture was taken, IP Addresses, and anything that
has a geographic component. With geographic coordinates, the features can then
be mapped and entered into Geographic Information Systems. (Courtesy
of Wikipedia). Geocoding allows for
each piece of data so coded to be tied to a specific spot on the earth. That
spot can then later be identified by GPS device, plotted on a map, or used to
determine distances between two coded spots.
A geocoder is a piece of
software or a (web) service that helps in this process. Geocodes can be added
to photographs, digitized documents, and a variety of things in electronic
format. The Geocode becomes a type of metadata, which
can be imbedded within the electronic file itself. There are cell phones and
digital cameras which come equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System). The
GPS uses satellites to determine the specific spot (within
GeoTagging
GeoTagging is the
process of associating the geographic location with an item, such as a photo,
certificate, or other digital record. It remains to be seen if the concept of
community or volunteer geotagging can help the
genealogical community. One such project is called GeoTagThings
at www.geotagthings.com.
This concept
has a lot of potential to benefit genealogists.
GeoTagging opens
possibilities of taking data that has been tagged (or marked up) with geographic locations and doing things with it
automatically, based on the location represented by that tag. For example, if a
birth record gives a location and the birth record has been geotagged
with the location, it becomes possible to represent the birth record on a map.
This is what makes geographic mashups possible.
Mashups
A
mashup (web application hybrid) is a website or web
application that combines content from more than one source (courtesy
Wikipedia). Thus one can take a geotagged genealogical
record database in one source (or on one website), and mash it up with maps on
a web site which has nothing to do with the genealogical database. Most online
mapping services allow for individuals to create their own maps from data. www.MapBuilder.net is one such tool,
which was used to create http://home.earthlink.net/~dcreeves2000/data/gen_map_dr_web.htm.
While this lacks detailed information, it’s a good start. Try beta.familysearch.org’s Individual Map.
A
great, multifaceted site is www.mapyourancestors.com.
This site plots family, chronologies (event or life), directories, and maps
migration or movement. It also has a new Ancestral File integration which will
display a pedigree from Ancestral File along with a map with pins for all the
events shown on the pedigree.
Another
geographical mashup is TriggerMap
at www.trippermap.com/. This mashes up
Google Earth with FlickR photos. Since both services
are free, all you have to do is sign up for a Flickr
account, upload photos of your ancestors and tag them with geographical
locations, then use trigger map to create a map with your photos represented by
pegs on the world map.
Another
example is Zillow, a popular mashup
which pulls information from sites about real estate sales, and presents that
information on a map from a different site. The result is a map which shows
individual homes with their value. It has nothing to do with family history,
but it illustrates the idea – see www.zillow.com.
Provo
Labs is an exciting new company in the genealogy community. Their first major
offering is WorldVitalRecords.com. At this site, you can search data that has
been tagged with geographic locations. This mashes
up with Yahoo! maps to display markers on a map represented by the data.
You search the database, get results, click on a result of interest, and get a
map of the area showing the area where the event took place. Social Security
Death Index,
The
Foundation for Online Genealogy offers WeRelate.org,
a cooperative site seeking to enhance good tools through individual
participation in the process. At this site, you can search names, places, or
sources and map them via a Google maps mashup. The
mapping portion is only visible when doing a sources search at www.werelate.org/wiki/WeRelate:Sources.
They have drawn information many sources, including the Family History Library
Catalog. Try a source search for a state or country and enter a record type
into the keywords field. Once you’ve found a record for a place, you can edit
the results to add additional valuable information, which will then be
available to future visitors to the WeRelate site.
It’s an interesting idea, with a lot of potential for the future.
The US GeoGen Project® (www.geogen.org) is a
GenMapUK (www.archersoftware.co.uk/genmap01.htm)
is a software product, but does some useful things with place data—either in a
GEDCOM file or a pre-formated data file from a
genealogical source, like the IGI. It can do surname distributions, event maps,
and a variety of other visualization tools. Take a look at their web site for
more information. It is probably only a matter of time before someone offers
this same service on the web. A similar software product is Family Atlas at www.familyatlas.com.
Goldbug’s SiteFinder (www.goldbug.com/map/sitefinder.html)
asks you to input a place name. It then locates the place and plots it on
Google Maps in a basic mashup. Goldbug
is well known for Animap Plus, a software program
which animates the changing boundaries for each county of the 48 states from
colonial times to the present. For an example of what an Animap
animation looks like, check out www.tngenweb.org/maps/county-ani/tn-maps/tn-cf.html.
A list of other states’ AniMap animations available
online is found at http://genealogyinc.com/map_county.html.
Other useful geo-sites:
·
http://jrshelby.com/hcl/ has links to great sites showing the changing
·
Not exactly a
geographic technology, but there’s a great list of geographic resources at http://map.lib.umn.edu/. It will link you to
lots of government data, including census statistical data by geographical
region, such as this map - .
·
Another long-used
online tool is the U.S. Census Surname Distribution site based on 1850-1880,
and 1920
·
www.shawngo.com/gmaps/states.php
attempts to show things on a map. So far, I haven’t been too impressed by
it—except for the fishing sites map. I mention it here as an example – and who
knows, it may become more useful in the future.
·
A site built using
census and other data mashups based on locality is ePodunk. Go to www.epodunk.com,
type in a place name, and see what you get. It’s well done.
To find more such sites as these, check out http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com,
http://gis-geoblog.blogspot.com/,
and http://googlemapsapi.blogspot.com.
©Copyright
2006-7 by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved. Written permission to reproduce
all or part of this syllabus material in any format, including photocopying,
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