Using Google Maps for Ancestors Location

ColinBeaver · Post by **ColinBeaver** » 13 Apr 2010 07:27

Has anyone mapped the locations of their ancestors on Google Maps.

Is their a software available which can be used to convert Gedcom to a suitable format for overlaying on Google Maps

Regards

Colin

ID:4485

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 13 Apr 2010 08:02

TNG and I think phpgedview both include Google Map elements in the Web site tools.

Personally I use Family Atlas sfotware which does a similar job and works directly from the the GEDCOM file.

stbaldock · Post by **stbaldock** » 15 Apr 2010 09:01

I had considered using Family Atlas in the past, but appearing to be an American program, I was not sure about it's coverage & handling of UK places.

What's your experience, Jane?

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 15 Apr 2010 09:13

Pretty good, any village with a church seems to be there and you can add additional places (farms etc), if you need to.

Here is an example, as you can see you can click on any place to see the events at that location.

The time line function is quite nice as you can filter events by date.

It was a bit lacking for places in India, but I think that was more to do with the fact so many place names were different during the Raj.

SueM · Post by **SueM** » 27 May 2010 17:16

I have saved my ancestors locations in the Google Earth (not the google map website). You can download it free http://earth.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/do ... earth.html

Once installed you can add a pin to the map at any location, give it a title and also a description. You can also add photo's and old maps as overlays. You can save whatever you have added to your Google Earth as a KMZ file.

I've tried to upload a screen shot image of my google earth to show what I mean but it doesn't seem to work, it gets stuck on 26%.

Sue

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 27 May 2010 21:11

Check the size of the image, I think the limit is around the 50Kb mark for uploads.

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 11 Nov 2010 15:57

The little folk in the family (and at long last some of the bigger ones!)are now getting interested in the fact that we come from diverse places throughout Great Britain and Ireland. I want to chart locations on a map and draw coloured (named) lines of family movements showing how they/we all ended up as Londoners when none of our ancestors came from anywhere near to London. Can anyone help point me in the direction of an outline of these islands that I can print out or purchase and play around with? I'm not averse to a download that I can draw on using Elements ,at least that way I might be able to share it more easily. Thanks
Dagwood
ps I've read some threads re software options that seem much more complex than my basic need fo a line diagram[wink]

PeterR · Post by **PeterR** » 11 Nov 2010 16:26

'Ordnance Survey is now providing a selection of free, downloadable, basic small-scale maps of Great Britain for you to use for your own purpose. GB outlines with and without administrative boundaries are available in EPS, TIF, PDF, GIF and WMF format; download the style and format of your choice to use in your word processing, presentation or graphics application.'

See: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsi ... tlinemaps/

This site has a downloadable jpeg map of the British Isles: http://www.craigasquith.co.uk/5.html

Dagwood · Post by **Dagwood** » 12 Nov 2010 08:24

Both sites most useful, many thanks for your help.
Dagwood[smile]

jmurphy · Post by **jmurphy** » 15 Nov 2010 08:00

I haven't made an extensive effort to locate ancestors on Google, but some early searches did alert me to street name changes, and comparing the maps to city directories which gave cross-streets showed that the streets had been re-numbered since the directory had been printed. So while using a modern-day map like Google Earth can be useful, it also helps to cross-check street addresses with other maps or documents close in time to your source.

Has anyone here looked at http://www.zoomatlas.com/ ?

Something like this, but with a historical focus, would be great for family historians.

Post by **tatewise** » 15 Nov 2010 13:43

Please see my posting Place and Address References
http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cg ... y&num=4706

This describes my technique for keeping a single repository citation for each Place/Address entry in any Facts.

Web Site fields hold URL that link directly to online maps either by Postcode or Grid Ref or Latitude/Longitude.
For example the following all link to the same place:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=S10+2FW
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=434059&y=386876
http://www.ukgr.dreamhosters.com/gmap.p ... -1.4894915

It is also possible for these to become active hyperlinks in certain formats of Reports and Websites.

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