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Using Maps for Genealogical Research

10/24/2019

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PictureSanborn Fire Insurance Map from Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tennessee.
​Our October 5th post discussed county boundary changes. Not only did county boundaries change, but state lines did too. (Tennessee borders eight states.) Bill Carey, cofounder of Tennessee History for Kids, and writer for The Tennessee Magazine has several excellent articles about these boundary changes and how the lines were drawn. Old maps can be useful in determining what state and county your ancestor lived in, even if they never moved.
 
Old maps also provide other information that can help a genealogist, from identifying neighbors and locating the closest church, to identifying key transportation routes likes roads, railroads and waterways. One site for historic maps is https://www.davidrumsey.com/. There are over 90,000 maps on this site and a wealth of information. Lisa Louise Cooke has an excellent tutorial on how to use the site.
 
Another set of maps that provide a wealth of information to the genealogist wanting to learn about their ancestors that lived in a city are the Sanborn Maps. These maps were originally created by the Sanborn Map Company to assess fire risk for insurance purposes. The detailed drawings show building placement on the lot, location of doors in the building, the number of stories and construction material and much more. The Library of Congress currently has 176 of these maps available online for Tennessee and they can be accessed at  https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?fa=location:tennessee.

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Land Records

10/9/2019

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​Land Records are very valuable for genealogical research, and how to use them can fill volumes. In Tennessee, understanding the history of land settlement and land grants is crucial to using the records successfully. Particularly helpful record collections include:
  • the Ancestry.com database “North Carolina and Tennessee, Early Land Records, 1753-1931,” available to Tennessee residents through TEL, as well as the North Carolina and Tennessee, Revolutionary War Land Warrants, 1783-1843. 
  • Earliest Tennessee Land Records and Earliest Tennessee Land History, by Irene Griffey, and
  • the two volume set by Barbara, Byron and Samuel Sistler, Tennessee Land Grants.

One way land records have been valuable to TNGS researchers is in identifying which part of the state an early settler may have lived in. It is not unusual to get a request for more information on a person who was “born in Tennessee about 1820.” We tackle that by looking at early land grants and other sources to identify areas where that surname is common, and then doing further research in those counties. 

For further information on early North Carolina / Tennessee land grant records available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, click here. 
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County Boundary Changes

10/5/2019

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County boundaries changed frequently in the early years of the state. And continued to change, with Loudon, Monroe, McMinn, Sumner, Macon, Haywood and Tipton all experiencing changes in the second half of the twentieth century. There are several websites, including the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, the TNGenWeb Project and Map of Us, that are excellent resources for tracking boundary changes through time.
 
In order to locate records, it is critical to know the correct county for the time period you are searching. One of our clients was looking for an ancestor from Hillsdale, TN. Today, Hillsdale is in Macon County; but when her ancestor lived there, the area was part of Smith County. Knowing that, we were able to find the information she was looking for.
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