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"You Lost? Map It" 

This week I took a class from a professional genealogist, Lee Nishimoto, at the Las Vegas Family Search Library. The class was about Ohio and how important this state is in not only our countries history but our genealogical research. Sister Nishimoto went into great detail, not about records but about MAPS. One of her lines to live by that she shared with me, "You lost? Map it". I could not have agreed more. 

Working in the Family History Library I noticed that the biggest mistake people made was the lack of historical knowledge about their area. They would spend hours and hours looking for records in a county that didn't exist until later. Once I would show them a map of that time period their brick wall was obliterated. 

Its very very important to get a historical background of the lay of the land you are researching. This will save a lot of unnecessary headache in the future. Look for migration patterns, look for land laws that could have made people move, look for rivers and water ways that acted as "freeways".  

Resources to use:

1. Family Search Wiki. 

• Pick what state you are working on for background about that state, its counties and city boundaries. 

2. http://www.mapofus.org This website shows year by year boundary changes in each state. It very useful to find how the counties formed and when. 

3. Good ole fashion Google

4. Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources

*5. Library of Congress historical maps Library of Congress

• This book could be found in a family history library and online on Ancestry. 

Online Red Book

1. googled "map of america before Louisiana purchase" 
2. Family Search  Wiki "United States Land and Property"