Maps still a powerful research tool
Published Saturday April 11th, 2009
Growing up, we always had several types of maps on hand.
Some were topographical and contained contour lines, rivers, lakes and black squares for houses.
These were neat because they contained other significant locations such as marshes, cemeteries, churches, gravel pits and old roads.
They were great for hiking and finding lost treasures that few others sought.
The other maps in abundance in our house were highway maps.
They were usually purchased at service stations or acquired for free at tourist centres.
These were great for making trips around the province.
The world atlas that kicked around our home for decades was there for other reasons.
Within its pages, we saw how Canada measured up against the rest of the world.
We used it for school projects, for finding locations around the world that family members had sailed to while serving in the army, for locating Department of Transport (now Transport Canada) and Canadian Coast Guard installations and for 'adventure dreaming.'
Nowadays many people don't bother with maps and you don't have to look far before you find someone who can't properly read one.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are regenerating an interest in maps and the Internet is doing its part too.
In fact, now more than ever, one can sit in the comfort of his or her home and find just about any place on Earth.
The Geonames geographical database (http://www.geonames.org/) is one such website and it's free. Location names can be entered into a search engine on the home page.
Countries can also be chosen.
Results are found by selecting to search for the name or the map. Refine the search using the Advanced Search engine.
It is interesting to learn about all the places around the world with similar names but for efficiency, it is important to choose a country.
For example, if Sussex is entered into the engine and a country is not chosen, then 3,019 results appear.
If Canada is chosen, the results are reduced to 13. Surprisingly, all 15 Moncton locations are located in New Brunswick.
If a populated place is sought and not a lake, river or mountain, then use the Feature Class in the advanced search engine.
Information with each result includes the country, province (for Canada), feature class (including population) and the degree of latitude and longitude.
To view the map, click the location name. Below the image is a list of places within the location and the surrounding area.
The quality of some satellite images is poor but others are sharp enough to zoom in on a hectare of land. That's powerful!
Various maps are available for all locations.
In the top right-hand corner, viewers can choose between Map, Satellite, Hybrid and Terrain images. The Map image is similar to a highway map with road names and highway numbers.
The Satellite map is an aerial view and Hybrid is a combination of the two.
Terrain is an interesting mixture of shaded contours and road names and highway numbers.
The Geonames website can help find locations relevant to genealogy research and for planning trips to cemeteries, archives, original places of settlement and back to the homeland.
* Diana Lynn Tibert is a freelance writer living in Milford, NS. Submit a query. It's free!: RR#1 Milford, Hants County, NS, B0N 1Y0; email: tibert@ns.sympatico.ca
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