Fifth Talk Added to Scottish ViC (virtual conference)

Great news! A fifth talk has been added to an already robust day of learning. National Library of Scotland Maps Manager, Craig Statham will be sharing his vast knowledge not only about the phenomenal collection of maps and plans within the NLS holdings but also about how to get the most out of the NLS Maps website. This really is a wonderful resource for anyone researching their Scottish ancestry. 

Craig's talk will take place mid way through the day, January 27th, 2018. Craig will be providing handouts of his talk as part of the ViC as well. 

For more information or to register: https://www.genealogyvic.com/home-1.html

Family History Month: Using Maps for Scottish Research

Scotland and Its Shires 1745
reproduced with permission of the NLS

One of my favourite websites for family history is the National Library of Scotland's maps website. The National Library of Scotland has over 2.5 million maps in their collections. And they have the best online collection of digital maps bar none. Their collections include:

• estate maps
• town plans and maps
• military maps
• county and country maps

Estate maps can show the farms your ancestors lived and worked on. We can see quarries, coal mines, forests, lochs, farm fields and location of the buildings belonging to the estate.

Town plans and maps show us how densely populated the town or village was and often will have labels on the buildings. These labels may determine the type of building, or they may be the name of the building's owner or proprietor. 

The older, John Wood maps from 1820 (under the tab for town plans and views) show tremendous detail, often including the names of the inhabitants of homes in the town. 

And, best of all, with their geo-referencing feature, you can overlay maps and see how the area has changed over time - and in many instances can see that very little has changed over time! 

Here's the link: http://maps.nls.uk/

Mapping Your Genealogy

If you have thought about printing out maps and putting push pins or sticker dots to represent all of the places your ancestors inhabited, save yourself the work and visit Ancestral Atlas:

http://www.ancestralatlas.com/ancestral-atlas-genealogy-mapping-network.php

This website is free to use. You simply upload your Gedcom file and the website takes over from there, plotting your ancestors onto maps. Little bubble-pins appear to show you who lived in that location and what events took place there.

Give it a try, but not until you have LOTS of time to lose yourself in the fun of mapping your genealogy!

Deceased Online Has Added Digital Maps

From DeceasedOnline:


"Detailed digital maps have been added to Deceased Online showing the exact locations of graves (lairs) within cemeteries and burial grounds in the Scottish county of Angus

The Angus cemeteries and burial grounds where maps are now available are:

- Airlie Churchyard

- Arbroath Eastern Cemetery

- Arbroath Western Cemetery

- Barry Churchyard extension

- Brechin Cemetery + extension

- Guthrie Churchyard

- Kirriemuir Cemetery

- Newmonthill Cemetery + extension

- Sleepyhillock Cemetery extension"

For the full story click here