Super Maximizing Maps for Genealogy: Part Two

The oldest detailed map in existence is the Madaba mosaic dating from the 6th century CE. Its representation of "The Holy City of Jerusalem" is the earliest clear and detailed city map ever found.

My obsession with place names and locations probably dates back to when I started collecting postage stamps when I was eight years old, so it is natural that I would approach genealogical research from the perspective of historical world geography. During the past years of teaching, supporting, and writing about genealogical research, I have concluded that focusing on the specific places events occurred is THE most important factor in producing a consistently accurate historical record.

Why is knowing the location of an event so important? There are several somewhat complex reasons why this is the case. Let me illustrate with a hypothetical example. Let's suppose that a baby was born somewhere in the United States in 1878. Let's further suppose that the only name we know for this baby is "Margaret." What are the chances of finding a baby named Margaret born in 1878 in the United States? Practically zero. But let's further suppose that we know that the baby was born in Washington County, Utah? What are our chances now of finding the baby?

Well, let's illustrate this with some searches in the Historical Record Collections on FamilySearch.org. If we search for Margaret born in 1878 and designate the place as the United States, we get 491,785 results. Not very useful at all. But if we add in the county the number changes dramatically. Remember to check the dates and places because Utah did not become a state until 1896. In fact, there are no responses at all. Hmm. Guess what? There are other factors involved such as the fact that Utah began recording birth records in 1890. So let's change the hypothetical to a Margaret who was married in 1896 in Utah and try that search. Our first search produces 969 results. What if we know she was married in Salt Lake County? Then the number drops to 246 but if we add a specific location such as Salt Lake City, in this case, the number does not drop, but the person we are looking for is actually on the first page of the search results.

In every case, knowing the exact location of an even increased the chances of locating a person even with limited additional information. This exercise illustrates the relationship between the location of valuable genealogical records and the exact locations of events in a person's life.

But now we have a situation analogous to the chicken and the egg problem; which comes first? The name of the person? The place and event occurred? Or the date of the event? Obviously, they all work together to help identify a particular individual but as is illustrated above knowing a name is not much use at all. Knowing a name and a date is still not useful. But if you know an approximate name, i.e. surname or given name, and an approximate date and the exact place, you can usually narrow down the options to the point of making a positive identification.

Now how does this type of investigation work in the real world? Well, here is an example from the FamilySearch.or Family Tree.

In this example, William Tarbutt is listed with 36 sources but none of the sources provide either his christening date or a death date so how do we know the names of his father and mother? Nearly all of the sources list Cranbrook, Kent, England as the place of the events. However, there are some references to events in these other locations.

• Goudhurst, Kent, England
• Marden Parish, Kent, England
• Canterbury, Kent, England

The time period involved is primarily in the 1700 and early 1800s well before the Industrial Revolution generally affected transportation in England. For example, railroads were introduced beginning in around 1830. 

Where are these locations? The fastest and easiest way to check and see if these locations make sense and thereby evaluated the sources is to plot these locations on a map. Google Maps works very well for this purpose, but there are many other ways to do the same thing. Here is a screenshot of the plot of the four places. 

Canterbury is the outlier but Marden is also suspect not just from the distance from most of the events, but also because there are no sources showing William Talbot in Marden. The map plots give us a basis for questioning the two solitary mentions of Marden and Canterbury. But it is still a good idea to take another step and check the frequency of the names in each of these areas. In this case, Fimdmypast.com will help focus the research. I have used Findmypast.com for this type of example many times but here we go again.

In this example, I am going to omit all of the screenshots and simply give the results of searching for Tarbutts in England and then focusing on the specific locations. There are about 7,200 Tarbutts with name variations in the Findmypast.com English records that were born + or - ten years from 1743. If we cut the time period down to + or - five years and add the given name of William, the number drops to 46 results. If I specify Cranbrook as the place there are only 17 results and nearly all of these results support the William Tarbutt who was from Cranbrook.

What about Marden? By changing the location to Marden, I find no results at all. So, if we discount the outlying results from Canterbury and the lack of any support for Marden, we now know that the most likely ancestor was a William Tarbutt from Cranbrook or Goudhurst in Kent. We also know that we have no documents showing his parents. 

With the map, the document searches, and the historical context, we can make a decision as to whether or not we believe that a connection shown in the Family Tree to a supposed parent is believable. In this case, there is more research necessary, but if there is a William Tarbutt born in 1715 in Cranbrook, he is most likely the parent of our William Tarbutt. 

To be continued.