Genealogy, GPS and mapping

Hey All

First, my apologies if this is posted in the wrong place.

Dave Hinz...

This is the perfect place, no worries.

cark...

Thanks Dave...

I would appreciate hearing from any of you who are using GPS and
mapping software. I have a notebook and I intend to purchase a plug-in
GPS and map software, but I could use some suggestions.

I have been visiting cemeteries and would like to include GPS data for
some of the older private cemeteries that are in very bad shape. I
know that the system isn't accurate enough to pinpoint individual
graves but would indicate where the graveyard is... or was.

Dave Hinz...

Here's what I've been doing: I'll get the GPS coordinates, to the limits
of the system, of each stone I'm recording. Then, I look around for
some sort of distinguishing landmark - that big tall spire with the
eagle on the top, the red large stone on top of a hill, something like
that. My notes will then include "50 feet to the west of, and 20 feet
to the north of, the tall granite spire with the eagle on the top, with
the name John Smith on it"

I also take photos with the stones I'm recording, and with that landmark
in the background, to get things situated.

cark...

Thanks for the tip. I've been taking digital photo's of grave markers
for several years now. Unfortunately, the ones that I fear will be lost
are in secluded small private family plots in overgrown hedgerows or
woods. The stones are being broken by trees and by deer. Some of these
graveyards don't have much in the way of landmarks, but something I'll
look for in the future.

Dave Hinz...

Well, there's always _something_. A gate, the roadway, something
permanent. Use the coordinates to get to where you can see it, and then
do a relative positioning from there.

Kerry Raymond...

Yes, it is certainly viable to use GPS to capture the location of a small
cemetery. If the cemetery is large and you want to capture the location of a
few graves within the cemetery, then again GPS is fine to the extent that
you (or others) can return to the cemetery later and with a bit of poking
around find the grave(s) reasonably quickly (especially if you have a few
additional comments like "3rd black headstone from roadway" to help once you
are in the vicinity).

Chris Watts...

But don't use trees as landmarks!
I went by distance from a large tree shown on a cemetry plan made in the
early 20th century. By the late 20th century there was a forest of large
trees to choose from!!

We take the GPS data and create KML/KMZ (web-searchEarth) files which we publish
on our WWW site of headstone photos from various old cemeteries. This
enables anyone who wants to see where a cemetery is in web-search Earth to
simply click on the link. Here's an example from our WWW site -- IF you have
web-searchEarth installed, click it and it will "fly" you to the Alberton
Cemetery at the Gold Coast, Australia. It won't work if you don't have
web-searchEarth installed.

Although KML/KMZ files can hold as precise a location as you get from your
GPS, web-searchEarth does not have the resolution to *display* to the same level
of precision. Therefore, we only make KML/KMZ files to record locations of
cemeteries and not of individual graves, although I guess you could use it
to record the *approximate* location of a specific grave in a large cemetery
(it would depend on just how good the resolution of web-search Earth is at that
location -- it is extremely variable).

I would also like to use a combination of GPS, mapping software and
plotting software to indicate the early homes and land holdings of my
ancestors, and how they were divided over time.

Dave Hinz...

I'd love to start doing that. Someday...

I know that there are quite a few map packages available. Do any allow
you to add overlays... or do what I have in mind..? Are there any
packages that have a base topo map and/or allow you to remove all
man-made features and start fresh with early 1600 settlements, for
instance..? Are any of you doing something similar..?

Dave Hinz...

topozone.com has online topo maps, which you could probably download and
add virtual "stick pins" to. If anyone knows of mapping software that
does this automagically, I'd love to hear about it.

cark...

Thanks again... I will take a look at that site.

I would doubt that any "automagic" software exists. I know from going
over old plot plans that many don't "close". Even older surveys relied
heavily on previous surveys of adjoining properties and used natural
lines as boundaries. Something like "beginning at the corner where
Smith's land meets Jone's along the creek to the large oak..."

I would be happy to get a close GPS location of where the house was and
map the rough acreage around it. I think that some of the digital GPS
map companies need to approach county clerks about digitizing their old
maps and plot plans. Some agreement for sharing the profit could be
reached I'm sure. County clerks are always anxious to point out that
they are one if not the only branch of county government that turns a
profit each year.

Kerry Raymond...

You want to bear in mind that most of the GPS receivers comes bundled with
mapping software from the same/affiliated company and therefore uses a
proprietary data format (vendor lock-in). There do exist various programs
(some of them freeware) to allow you to convert your GPS data from your
vendor's format to various other formats. The impact for you of all this is
that you may well need to start by choosing your mapping software, then
choose a GPS receiver compatible with it (or convertable to it).

A lot of mapping software will allow you to add overlays, but I am not sure
about the availability of purely topological map sets with everything else
done as optional overlays. Most mapping software are used for contemporary
purposes so relating locations to things like roads tend to be more useful
to most users, so at least some of this information tends to come as part of
the base map (e.g. my base map for Garmin MapSource has highways and major
towns on it). And indeed, even for historical purposes, it is useful to know
where a historic location is relative to current landmarks (you probably
have to drive there to visit it). However, I take your point that you would
like to be able to view the data optionally with and without current
landmarks, but you may need to settle for being able to reduce the amount of
contemporary information rather than turn it all off.

The other issue is whether you want to share your location data with others,
and whether or not these people will have a GPS or mapping software (of the
same brand as yours or a brand that you can covert to). Most likely the
people you want to share with don't have these things. This is where KML/KMZ
(web-searchEarth) files are very useful as web-searchEarth is probably the most
ubiquitous free mapping software available. Now I know there are many things
to be said against web-search Earth (poor resolution, doesn't run on Macs/Linux,
generally needs broadband although some people say they use it over
dial-up), but its installed base is massive compared with anything else. For
most people, even if they cannot install web-search Earth themselves
(Mac/Linux/dialup users), odds on they know someone who can use web-search
Earth. You can define your own overlays for web-search Earth incidentally,
including overlaying images (very useful if you happen to have aerial photos
or old maps), 3D shapes (e.g. to show the position of old buildings),
polygons (e.g. to show the boundaries of a piece of ancestral land), lines
(e.g. to show a route or track), and placemarkers (to mark locations of
houses, cemeteries etc).

I guess what I am saying here is that when it comes to GPS, mapping and
genealogy, there probably isn't going to be a simple off-the-shelf solution
for you. It's probably a much too specialised niche market. And looking at
the bigger picture of GPS and mapping, it seems likely that web-search Earth
will become (or perhaps already is) the "default" software mapping tool for
most ordinary Internet users, so you might as well factor using web-search Earth
as a means of sharing your genealogic GPS data into your long term plans.
Having said all that, probably the most important thing you need to have in
your mapping software is the ability to export it to plain text which you
can cut-n-paste into other formats or other mapping software. Conversion
tools are nice but nothing beats plain text for handling the unanticipated
situations.

Thanks in advance for your time and attention
-Dogfish

Jeff...

I appreciate this doesn't answer your question but it might
be of interest to thosse without GPS whose data is mainly
from church graveyards that PARLOC (which is free) gives the
OS reference to the SW corner of the kilometere square where
the church is located.

PARLOC is at:

Dave Hinz...

As in the beer?

cark...

No... actually wasn't aware of the beer until I just searched the web for it. It
has been my handle since the late ''70's when I built my first S-100
machine.

Dave Hinz...

They make some astonishingly good stuff, if you like complex beers. So
what was your S-100 machine then? I really liked that bus, back in the
days. Had a Z-80 machine with the usual homebrew assortment, mostly
homebrew stuff.

Thanks again
-Dogfish