Plotting the Geographical Movement of Individuals

ricm · Post by **ricm** » 01 Apr 2009 13:50

This is a bit off the wall I know, but does anyone know if there is any software that will help plot the movement of individuals and families over time? I'm not even sure if there is a generic name for such software.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!.
Ric

ID:3565

arshawbrown · Post by **arshawbrown** » 01 Apr 2009 14:20

I use Family Atlas by RootsMagic. It works well for my use of plotting family movements and relationships in a given area.

RalfofAmber · Post by **RalfofAmber** » 01 Apr 2009 15:07

I use Family Atlas as well which I would say is ok for big picture stuff - e.g. births of a branch in a period on a map of the country. More detailed options I am not sure - check out their website. There is also a thread here somewhere where Jane posted some images she made using this

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 01 Apr 2009 15:34

Yes I really like Family Atlas, it works well and the timeline option to show and hide events through time can be very handy.

You can select groups of people and the event types and plot them on the map very easily.

ricm · Post by **ricm** » 01 Apr 2009 16:02

This is looking good. What I am after is something along the following lines:

* Scatter map of individuals at any one point in time
* Journey of movements of 1 individual over time
* Web output????

The scatter diagram example you posted looks just the thing I am after for a snapshot in time. Does Family Atlas come close on the other two?

By the way, most of the geographical locations will come from census information as well as Certificates &etc. Is Family Atlas able to extract this from the GED file; if so does the census information have to be recorded in a specific way in order for this to work?

Thanks,
Ric

gerrynuk · Post by **gerrynuk** » 01 Apr 2009 16:17

You might want to check out this review:

http://www.genealogyreviews.co.uk/fhmMay07_atlas.htm

especially the comments:

'The other problem is that the UK counties used are given the post-1974 administrative authority names and boundaries, whereas most family historians probably use the historic county names and boundaries, which will not, therefore, be recognised.'

and

'You might find that Family Atlas is not the unmitigated fun the advertising promises, but few things ever are. Once over the boring data validation process, it's a useful and versatile way of seeing where your family came from and where they settled.'

Gerry

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 01 Apr 2009 16:45

* Scatter map of individuals at any one point in time

You can do this using the time line, option to omit events outside of that line, I am not sure how it would work with events with durations as I have not tried it.

* Journey of movements of 1 individual over time

You can plot all the events of a single person.

* Web output????

You can save any map as a jpg or gif file for use on a web page, it does not actually generate the html. Of course there is nothing to stop you attaching the maps to your FH data and they using what ever tool you normally use for your data to publish to the web.

It's not a perfect tool, but of the 3 I have bought it's the best of the bunch.

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