Mapping Wars...Or Other Events

Military service and wars, police actions, and other armed conflicts, were a big part of many of our ancestors lives. In the U.S. we ran into conflict with Native Americans several times as citizens pushed west. We rose up in revolution against Great Britain and fought them again in 1812. Fifty years later, we fought a bloody civil war. The 20th century brought the Great War, later known as World War I, World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War. Other countries have different wars but similar stories.

I spend a lot of time telling my ancestors' stories about war and military service. In my last post I shared how I researched my Scottish soldiers and wrote about their experiences. As I was researching my Jennings line from Virginia, I realized that five young Jennings men, brothers and first cousins, served with the same regiment during the Civil War. Virginia seceded from the United States two days after Union forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina and President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to join the Union Army. Four Jennings men enlisted in the Confederate States of America's army the same day. My great grandfather, at age 19, joined them a year later on 1 March 1862. They all joined the 19th Virginia Infantry regiment.

With five ancestors in one unit, it made sense to tell the story of the regiment, highlighting along the way when something specific happened to an ancestor. I quickly discovered I needed a timeline to keep all the marches, battles, camps, disease, wounds, and so forth straight. And I needed a map so I knew where they were in order to describe terrain and weather conditions. There are some seriously well-done battle maps on Wikipedia, but none of them show how a regiment moved from place to place between battles. And those are the times a soldier got seriously foot sore!

Today, I'd like to share how I map the movements of a military unit. I'm not technical so I had to find a way that was easy yet produced nice maps and was informative. I think I have found such a method using Google Maps and any slideshow software.

At first I thought I could illustrate the entire experiences of the 19th Virginia Regiment on one map. But that quickly turned out not to be the case. Military units make many movements -- small and large -- and different scaled maps are appropriate for different situations. Here's an example of how small and large movements look together on one map:

Movements of the 19th Virginia Infantry after the Seven Days Battles to
Northern Virginia where they fought in the Second Battle of Bull Run or
Second Manassas; map created by Google Maps and PowerPoint

The above map illustrates a train ride from Richmond, Virginia, to Gordonsville and a 15-day march north to northern Virginia. Short marches and a battle are depicted by the pines labeled 1 through 3. The distance between Richmond and Pin 3 on modern roads is 95 miles. Only with a map can you quickly see the 19th Virginia Infantry traveled much further. Simply, listing the towns they marched through in text would not have conveyed the same information so quickly.

The following map illustrates a larger scale describing two battles which took place over a short period of time in the same general vicinity:

Movements of the 19th Virginia Infantry during the Seven Days Battles
illustrating two battles, the aftermath and where and when Daniel Rose and
Leroy Powhatan Jennings were wounded

To make these maps, I first research each battle thoroughly using online reference sources and offline sources such as muster rolls, unit diaries, and letters home. I wrote down each time a place and date are mentioned and, if included, the method of travel -- train, boat, or marching.

Then I go to Google Maps and click the menu icon:

Google Maps Menu Icon

Select the My Maps option from the dropdown.  A list of customized maps you have previously created will display or you can create a new map:

Creating a new map using Google Maps

Your customized maps are stored in Google Drive so you likely need a Google account.

Give your new map a title.

Titling your customized Google map

You can import text and images into your map, using the import link but I don't like that as I don't have total control of how it looks.

Now that I have my base map, I go back to the list of dates and places I created from my research. Type a place name in the text box at the top of the map and click the magnifying glass icon to the right of the text box.

Google Maps zooms you to the location. But you are plotting historical movements on a modern map, so you might need to look around to find exactly where you want to place your pin. For example, I know that the 19th Virginia Infantry was stationed in a swamp between the Warwick River and Yorktown, Virginia, on 26 April 1862. I zoom around until I find the Warwick River and look around for a suitable swamp between the river and Yorktown -- that's where I place my pin.

To add a pin, click the Pin icon and click the location on the map where you want to place your pin:

Adding a pin to identify location using Google Maps

You can edit the name of the Pin once you have placed it. I also usually delete the default location information provided by Google and add the date the regiment was at that location.

Once I have completed mapping movements during a specific period of time, I am ready to add further customization and descriptors to it in a way in which I can control the appearance. So I take a screenshot of my Google Map. How you do that depends on the type of computer you use.

Then I open Powerpoint (or another slide/presentation application) and open a new file. I reset the defaults to a blank slide and import the screenshot onto the slide. Again how to do that varies by application. All you need to know is where your computer stored your screenshot.

Once the screenshot is on the slide, you can use the features of the presentation application to add text, lines, etc. All this an be done using Google Maps but there are limits on the appearance of that information.

Once you have finished adding embellishments to your customized Google map. Click on Slideshow to get a full-screen presentation of that map. Take another screenshot. Save it. And voila! You have a map you can use to illustrate blog posts, upload to your family tree, or add to your website.

I use these maps not only for posts about military service, but also family migrations. It's totally up to you!

My latest maps are now appearing in a month-long series about the 19th Virginia Regiment on my blog, Tangled Roots and Trees.

Collaborative Geo-referencing of Maps

Last month Pat Richley-Erickson's contribution Google Earth for Genealogists brought our attention to overlays of historical maps available on Google Earth. The historical maps were georeferenced  to create overlays that are in the correct place. Once maps have been georeferenced, they can be compared and integrated with other mapped data, which can lead to better understanding of their contents. The best way to understand the process and its limitations is to try it for yourself.

The National Library of Scotland, British Library, David Rumsey Map Collection and other institutions use the online Georeferencer application for their collaborative map georeferencing projects. Due to differences in scale, projection and accuracy the historical map will not match a modern reference map. Imagine the historical map was printed on a rubber sheet, which you can stretch and pin it down to the modern map at known points. By the magic of mapping technology, Georeferencer does all the calculations behind the transformation.

An example from the British Library is a map of the parish of Thompson, a village in rural Norfolk, England a few miles from my home. It was published in a book about the history of Thompson published in 1892, but it was redrawn from an earlier map dated to around 1725 which shows open fields, a farming system from medieval times.

Having selected this map and opened it in the British Library georeferencer, my first job was to locate Thompson on the modern map and zoom in so I could see features marked on both maps. I started with the church, a good bet in rural England where churches may stand for centuries. Other features required some interpretation and local knowledge. Rivers and roads may change course so are not good candidates for control points. In this case the parish boundary has remained the same so points where it intersects other features or sharply changes direction are helpful. I needed to use several of the supplied reference maps and satellite images to find enough features for 10 control points.

Control points on the Thompson map on the left match reference maps and satellite image on the right.

The visualize tab gives 2D, 3D and side by side viewing options. The 2D option lays the historical map over Google maps, and the slider changes the transparency of the historical layer. The 3D option opens Google Earth in a small window, so you would do better to click on the 'Open KML in Google Earth' link. Notice many of the field boundaries follow older features. I had not realised that Thompson Water is a modern feature!

Overlay of Thompson map in Google Earth

A harder example, from The National Library of Scotland, is a map of Islay, an island off the west coast of Scotland, dated 1654. Many of the place names on the historical do not appear reference maps. Variant spellings of place names add to the challenge. Notice that the historical map appears distorted compared to the modern map.

Comparison of Islay map on left with modern map right, with control points

Eventually I managed to locate 36 control points. In the process I gained an insight that I would never have realised otherwise. This map was drawn from the perspective of someone at sea. The relative positions of settlements as seen from the sea is emphasized. At the time this map was made, sea travel predominated. Geographic accuracy is compromised and, even with a lot of correction, only achieves a poor match to the modern map.

Transformations of Islay map, increasing correction from left to right.  Left:affine, centre:polynomial, right: TPS

Is the 1654 map of Islay a bad map? It was produced before projections had been invented, so it is not really fair to expect it to conform to modern thinking.

All maps lie because representing the earth's surface on a flat piece of paper always requires compromise. Although we think of the earth as a sphere, in reality it is flattened at the poles and very lumpy. The mathematical transformation of geographic co-ordinates onto a flat plane is called a projection.  Projections preserve one of area, distance or direction while distorting the other two. The most familiar Mercator projection preserves direction, important for nautical navigation, but distorts the area of objects near the poles.

Ready to explore for yourself? Go and have fun discovering things were not as you thought.

Google Earth for Genealogists

So it's a marriage - the bringing together of two marvelous internet resources, all for the benefit of genealogists.

IMAGE: Screen capture http://www.davidrumsey.com/view/google-earth

David Rumsey Maps
and
Google Earth







FOR FURTHER READING

From Google Earth Outreach

• Creating Photos and Image Overlays in Google Earth (video and post)
• Google Earth Outreach - Home 
• Earth Outreach Tutorial: Overlay a Map in Google Earth (video)
• Earth Outreach Tutorial: Making an Interactive Map (video) (for a family history tour)

From other videographers

• How to overlay plat maps on Google Earth 
• ArcMap 10: Open your GIS data in Google Earth by converting Layer to KML in ArcMap
   

Creating your own Google Map using the Mapalist utility

Earlier this year Jill Ball wrote about where our forebears come from.  She included a map of where her forebears came from.

An excellent utility for preparing Google maps highlighting specific places is Mapalist.

I have written about Mapalist previously on my own blog (Mapping the birthplaces of the children of John Way and Sarah née Daw).

First you create a spreadsheet in Google Drive. You enter the place names you want and the utility uses those names to mark the places on a Google map.

It was very quick to enter the data and generate a map. I used a separate column to enter the Australian state to ensure correct disambiguation of the place names.

Birthplaces of children of John Way and Sarah Daw	State
Adelaide	South Australia
Binalong	New south wales
Collingwood	Victoria
Murrumburrah	New South Wales
Grenfell	New South Wales
Parkes	New South Wales

You then go to https://mapalist.com. You do need to register for an account if you haven't already got one. You will need to allow Mapalist access to your Google account details.

Go to the tab Maps then choose create. Choose the source type of Google spreadsheet. Choose the worksheet you entered the data into.

Creating a map in Mapalist

You get a preview of the data being used.
After clicking next you assign fields to the columns. It did this automatically - I didn't need to change anything.

stage 2 of creating your map using Mapalist

I used a separate column to enter the Australian state to ensure correct disambiguation of the place names.

I clicked apply and then next. 

stage 3 of creating your map using Mapalist

In my case it had no problem in working out the places I meant.  If you have trouble then you might need to tweak your spreadsheet with extra fields to help locate the place you are meaning.

At the next stage you configure your map by choosing the pin you want.

stage 4 of creating a map using Mapalist

You can play around with the settings and preview your map

options in stage 4

Finally you save your map, having configured it as to whether you want it private or public ...

stage 5 save your map

You can preview

Immediately below the map are some buttons to click. The second one, a rectangle with an arrow emerging from it, is for sharing by email but clicking that also gives you the code to embed your map on any web page including your blog.

Et voila!

Good luck with mapping your family history.

The 5Ws - Where did they come from?

 I wrote in last month's  post that Who, What, When, Where and Why will guide me in this and subsequent posts for my contributions to this blog. I wrote two Who posts so thought I would attack the next on the list WHAT and now I am quite flummoxed as to how I should describe the WHAT of my genealogical activities.

Should it be:
What am I researching?
What do I use to research? 
What involvement do I have in the geneaworld?

As a born procrastinator I will park the What post for the moment and move on to Where.

Where my earliest ancestors came from:

Richard Aspinall - Wigan, Lancashire, England
Katherine Bowe - Kilkenny, Ireland
Catherine Connolly - Kilkenny, Ireland
Mary Cregan - Eniskillen, Fermanagh, Ireland
Patrick Curry - Clare, Ireland
Eliza D'Arcy - Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland
James Duncan - Aberdeen, Scotland
Robert Hayward - Oxfordshire, England
James Homer - Manchester, Lancashire, England
Patrick Kealy - Ballyfoyle, Kilkenny, Ireland
Catherine Maxwell - Glasgow, Scotland
Margaret McRone/McKeon - A mystery woman
Michael Molloy, Meath, Ireland
Eleanor Moore - Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Elizabeth Phipps - London, England
James Pusell - Warrington, Lancashire, England
Bridget Ryan - Kilbeggan, Westmeath, Ireland
Dennis Tierney - Roscrea, Tipperary, Ireland
John Tucker - Datchet, Buckinghamshire, England
James Westbrook - London, England

Looks like my blood is mostly Irish with a good dose of English and a dash of Scottish.

Using Google Maps I created a custom map to show where those ancestors came from. The birth places of my ancestors can be found on the map below. You can use your mouse to navigate around the map.

So that's where I come from. How about you?

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I'll be blogging here again on the 2nd of next month. In the meantime, I'll be blogging at http://geniaus.blogspot.com . You can find me on Google+ as Jill Ball and sometimes on Twitter as @geniaus