GeneaBabble

1867 Atlas

One of the great things about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is the ability to find the location of something you’ve found in an old atlas and then find out all sorts of information on it — if you’re lucky enough to be doing research in a county where GIS is available. GIS can be insanely valuable for genealogists and I will probably spend a lot of time posting about it and tools such as Google Earth. Here’s a little technique I use to find what I’m looking for by recognizing road patterns.

This research takes us to the Northwest corner of East Huntingdon township in Westmoreland County, PA. There was a Post Office there named McKean’s Old Stand shown in the 1867 atlas of Westmoreland. Evidence has been mounting that my family came from Westmoreland to Mercer County in the very late 18th century, so this is an interesting find. McKean’s Old Stand is also mentioned in some Westmoreland history books, but there’s not much information. Let’s see how GIS can help us find out more about this place.

Atlas Patterns

First, we want to identify some patterns in the roads near McKean’s Old Stand. Luckily there’s a nice triangularish pattern directly south. I’ve highlighted this as well as some of the roads leading out of the area in the image on the left. Now, let’s go to the Westmoreland County GIS site.

GIS County View

I won’t go through all the details of how to use the site here. Maybe in the future I’ll give an overview of GIS with some tips on using most county sites (they usually all have the same types of tools.) So, we’re given an overview of the entire county. First we should turn off the Tax Parcels layer. That layer will show us every parcel of land when we zoom in and this will clutter up our image. We’ll get back to that layer a bit later.

GIS Patterns

We want to zoom into the Northwest corner of East Huntingdon. This is an easy one, really. The pattern should become apparent instantly. Now we know the approximate location of McKean’s Old Stand. But what good is this for genealogy? Well, turn the Tax Parcels layer back on, select the information tool and now you can find out who currently owns the nearby parcels. This will allow you to trace the history of the area as far back as records will allow by going through the chain of title. It’s a pain in the butt, but it can reveal lots of good information.

Maybe some day I’ll get down to Westmoreland County and finally figure it all out. Maybe…