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Using Maps in Genealogical Research
By Arlene Jennings, CG
An 1880 map of
Osage County, Kansas, reveals the opportunities and the results of
settlement in the county during the twenty some years before its
publication. The map shows township, range and section lines from the
federal survey preparatory to settlement; village boundaries and
subdivisions of village centers into blocks; rivers, creeks and springs;
public and private roads; railroads – the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe, the
Carbondale & Lawrence, and the proposed St. Louis & Walnut Valley as well as
train stations; post offices, numbered schoolhouses, and churches which lie
outside of village centers; cemeteries; coal mines; stone quarries; and
brick and lime kilns.
The map implies considerable information
for the genealogist. It shows population density in the number and extent of
villages; the abundance of rivers, creeks and streams suggests that the area
is hospitable to settlement throughout; the network of roads and railroads
reinforces those assumptions and provides the possibility of travel within
and beyond the area. However, in an area that flooded frequently before the
building of lakes and dams in the second half of the twentieth century, the
presence of so many rivers and creeks may also indicate the vulnerability of
the settlers’ homes. The presence of stone quarries, brick and lime kilns
and saw mills suggests the materials used in building homes, public
buildings, and streets. The coal mines provide useful data on the economy,
available jobs and sources of income as well as the nature of fuel used for
heating. A Flouring Mill and Cheese Factory reveal nutritional possibilities
for the early residents. The schools and churches that dot the countryside
indicate values in the culture and the frequency and
nature
of social interaction.
An Illustrated Historical Atlas of Osage County, Kansas,
Compiled, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations and Surveys,
was published in Philadelphia by Edwards Brothers in 1879, just a year
earlier. In addition to less detailed county and state maps, the atlas also
has individual maps for each township and village in the county. The
township maps, on a scale of two inches to the mile, show further
subdivisions of sections with names of landowners, the number of acres
owned, and the location of the farmhouse on the property. Greater detail in
these maps allows one to see spurs from the main line of the railroad off to
coal mines.
Village maps of varying scales show the layout of streets
and their names, the location of post offices, churches, schools, banks,
factories, public parks and squares and other significant institutions such
as newspaper publishers and mining companies. For churches the denomination
is given. Banks, parks and squares, publishers and mining company owners are
named. The product of factories is identified.
The detail of township and
village maps significantly enhances the genealogist’s understanding of the
lives of ancestors. From the maps one can know not only where ancestors
lived in 1879 but also who their neighbors were and the distance between
their houses. The presence of several farmhouses on one owner’s property
suggests multiple related families in a community living close to each
other. One can determine the proximity of their homes to post offices and to
towns where they might have shopped. There are clues to where the children
might have attended school, where the family might have worshipped and where
they might have buried their dead. There are implications as to their assets
in the size and location of the land holdings and special features of their
land such as the presence of coal mines. Their names may be linked to
institutions such as banks, newspapers or factories. And as one researches
other sources, newspapers of the period, census records, photographs, or
family letters, for example, it becomes possible to test the assumptions
made from the map just as the map may be used to test the hypotheses created
from other data.
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