As a follow up to my blog last week on social networking, Dick Eastman had an interesting pre-announcement on Saturday on a new project by Paul Allen, the co-creator of Ancestry, and currently the CEO of FamilyLink (WorldVital Records).  In an article in the Desert News he characterizes FamilyLink as the social networking site for both amateur and professional genealogists.  I am not advocating this site, just passing on information.  Time will tell!

    I'd also like to announce that this is the first anniversary of my website and blog.  I hope you've enjoyed it and you've learned something new.  Over the next month or two, I plan a major update to the site and I'm always interested in hearing from readers, so don't hesitate to drop me a line if you have any comments or an idea for a blog topic.

    Now on to the topic of the day, Google Maps.  I was an early adopter of online maps as I discussed in a blog last fall.  I often wondered how I found my way around before Mapquest when I worked as a sales rep (and today I use my GPS).  I'm also an advocate of timelines to help with research problems

    Last week I found another excellent use, specifically for Google Maps which combines both technologies.  I had been working on a client report and I wanted to show the family migration.  I created a map in Google and highlighted the migration of each descendant's family with different color pins (explained in the key).  This turned out to be a great graphic in the report as it visually showed what I was explaining in the text.   It also helped me in another way.  As I placed a pin on the map for each event, I realized that each child of George Fuller had been born in a different town, although all but one was born in the same county.  This gave me an excellent timeline prior to the 1850 census.  In 1850 George was identified as a builder, so he probably moved as the jobs changed. 

    As I'm planning a research trip to upstate New York the last week of August, I decided to focus on that area.  As you can see from the map below, each pin represents an event and when I click on the pin I see the name and date of the event.  This is certainly helping me plan my trip. 

    Give GoogleMaps a try with your family.  You can get down to images of street level in a town, even if your family didn't move far.  It might even show the cemeteries.   Try typing in a search for churches (of the denomination if you know it) in the area.  For example, what was the closest Baptist church to Leyden, New York.  A search on Community Baptist Church (location A in Port Leyden tells me the church was started in 1800 which makes it a prime target to write or visit.

    I hope this gives you some ideas on using Google Maps in your research.  Happy Hunting!