HOW TO FIND LOCATIONS
This information is excerpted from "How to Do Research on the Internet" http://www.researchonline.net/res1.htm Permission is explicitly granted to repost this message to other maling lists.One of the frequent questions genealogist's face is where a particular place is located. The Net has some wonderful resources, once you understand how to use them.
The popular search tools such as Mapquest and Switchboard often are useless in locating things like cemeteries, streams, rivers, churches and place names. But don't despair. You'll find the following tool really useful and fun to use.
1. Access the Geographic Names Information System at Yale University http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/gnis/ 2. Search for the feature, name, and county of your choice. 3. Take the map coordinates information to the GNIS (Geographic Names Information System) and draw a map of the area showing the place you're looking for. http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html 4. Download the map for inclusion in your research notes. Here's the results of a sample session: I accessed the GNIS server at Yale and initiated a request for Aiken, South Carolina and the keyword CEMETERY. I received the following results. AIKEN MEMORIAL CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333636N 0814343W : Aiken ASBILL CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334952N 0813752W : Ridge Spring BATH CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333045N 0815205W : Graniteville BETHANY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333411N 0814305W : Aiken BROWN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334116N 0814622W : Trenton BROWN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334930N 0813401W : Monetta BUSBEE CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334338N 0814614W : Trenton CARTER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333248N 0815128W : Graniteville CEDAR BRANCH CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333152N 0813158W : Oakwood CLARK CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333711N 0814636W : Graniteville COURTNEY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333925N 0813610W : Foxtown CULLUM CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334239N 0813605W : Foxtown CUMBEE CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334352N 0813923W : Aiken NW EASTER BRANCH CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334629N 0814013W : Ridge Spring FIELDS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333750N 0815138W : Trenton GALPHIN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332256N 0814911W : Hollow Creek GLOVER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332643N 0814936W : Hollow Creek GLOVER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332848N 0815019W : Hollow Creek GOSS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333337N 0813118W : Oakwood GRANITEVILLE CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333408N 0814740W : Graniteville GREEN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333904N 0814807W : Trenton GREGORY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334445N 0814032W : Aiken NW HAMMOND CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332510N 0815145W : Hollow Creek HAMMOND CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333135N 0815848W : North Augusta HANKINSON CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332232N 0815030W : Hollow Creek HARTLEY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 335039N 0813336W : Monetta KNEECE CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 335002N 0813331W : Monetta MOUNT HARRIS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333005N 0814057W : Aiken MOUNT PISGAH CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333807N 0813933W : Aiken NW NEEDHAM BROWN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333806N 0814454W : Aiken NW NEW LANGLEY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333045N 0815005W : Graniteville NICHOLSON CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333930N 0815144W : Trenton OLD LANGLEY CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333047N 0815028W : Graniteville PLUNKETT CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333529N 0813617W : Oakwood PLUNKETT CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334037N 0813642W : Foxtown SAINT MARKS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332612N 0814610W : Hollow Creek SAINT MARYS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333357N 0814618W : Graniteville SANDERS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334525N 0813943W : Ridge Spring SAWYER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334659N 0813346W : Monetta SCOTT CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333340N 0813344W : Oakwood SCOTT CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333742N 0814250W : Aiken NW SEIGLER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333830N 0813926W : Aiken NW SEIGLER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333849N 0813948W : Aiken NW SEIGLER CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333853N 0813839W : Aiken NW SPRING CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332413N 0814245W : New Ellenton SUNSET HILL CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 332951N 0815853W : Augusta East (GA) TIMMERMAN CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 334350N 0814424W : Aiken NW WEEKS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333531N 0813829W : Aiken WILLIAMS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333412N 0814919W : Graniteville WILLIAMS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 335016N 0813523W : Monetta WILLIS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333611N 0813934W : Aiken WRIGHTS CEMETERY : cemetery : Aiken : 333440N 0813812W : Aiken Now I want to locate the Hammond Cemetery in North Augusta. - Actually, I know where it is since my 5th ggpa is there, but anyway for the example: Go to http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html and fill in the request form using the data elements above. Actually you can go directly to this form and play around with the options, but if you're serious about finding something, you must first know their exact names, etc. to locate it and it's much easier to go the the Yale site first and get a complete list of the possibilities. Once you have entered the info., you'll get back a map showing the location. There's a couple of other URL's which directly access the TIGER MAPPING DATABASE of the GNIS and can yield some interesting results. The first one below requires that you move the decimal point two places to the right for the lattitude and three places to the right for the longtitude. Thus the info. from the chart above for the Hammond Cemetery 333135N becomes 33.31 0815848W becomes 81.58 and in the following example, I added a red pin for the Hammond Cemetery. http://bluefs.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapper/map.gif?lat=33.31&lon=-81.58&wid=.5&ht =.5&iht=600&iwd=600&mark=-81.58,33.31,redpin,Hammond+Cemetery (this should all be typed on one line even though your mail program may wrap it to two or more lines) Here's another site that accepts the coordinates in the same format as the Yale server displays. Note you can also customize it to show the Cemetery Name on your map. http://mapping.usgs.gov:8888/gnis/owa/MapServer?f_name=Hammond+Cemetery&f_stat e=SC&f_latlong=333135N0815848W&server=TIGER Once you have the map displayed on your screen, point at it with your mouse, click on the right mouse button, and save the map to your hard disk as a GIF file. You can then use it in your own programs.
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