Wisconsin pronunciation guide is great for genealogy!

I was at a Christmas party this evening and had a fun time. Then I came back to my apartment and have been having fun on my computer. The Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office has an online pronunciation guide to places all around the state. Not a written guide, but an audio presentation.

I do stumble over some of the names of Wisconsin places where my ancestors resided.

Pronounce these names and then see if you got them right by clicking here. Click on the arrow on the map and then jump around to see a variety of places. Then use the search box near the upper right corner to do more specific searches.

• Berlin
• New Berlin
• Buena Vista
• Oconomowoc
• Peebles
• Stoughton

I would give you more places to check but I need to go back to my own evening entertainment. Hmmm, how is Hurricane or maybe Louis Corners pronounced?

Current Plat Book for St. Louis County, Minnesota

The 2012 editions of the St. Louis County Minnesota Land Atlas and Plat Books are now available. This county is in Northeastern Minnesota and runs north to the Canadian border. Duluth, Hibbing, Hermantown, Chisholm, Ely, Eveleth, and the famous Embarass are some of the cities in this beautiful county. It also includes parts of Superior National Forest, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and Voyageurs National Park. The southeast part of the county borders Lake Superior.

Because of the vast land that this county covers, there are two parts, one for the northern half and another for the southern half. The books show detailed land ownership and property size, along with roads, lakes, section boundaries, and other reference data.

For purchase details in today's Duluth News-Tribune click here. Or visit the county website here.

1784 Map of the U.S. to be displayed at LOC

An article in Sunday's Washington Post tells the tale of how the Library of Congress will be able to display the first map of the United States. "The first map of the United States, created in 1784, has been purchased for the record price of $1.8 million by Washington philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is lending it to the Library of Congress."

This map is an original drawn by Connecticut resident Abel Buell and Rubenstein wants the LOC to display it for five years. He said "I just think Americans don't know enough about their history. Showing documents spurs them to learn more." I agree with this statement. Whether I am teaching beginners or advanced family historians, the ability to see a document connects them more fully to the document and time period. It also spurs them to find such documents that relate to their own ancestry.

The Christie's auction house website describes the map as "the first map of the U.S. published in America, the first map printed in America to show the flag of the United States and the first map to be copyrighted in the United States." That would be the NEW United States of America! 

Rubenstein has purchased other historical documents and made them available for public viewing. The map had been put up for auction by the New Jersey Historical Society as a means of raising operating funds. I think we will see more historical societies, archives, and libraries employing such methods to keep them going in today's era of extreme lack of governmental support for historical organizations and libraries.

Click here to read the full article. Click here to see the map description at Christie's auction house.

Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses is back!

Over at GenealogyBlog.com, Leland Meitzler announced that Dollarhide and Thorndale's Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses 1790-1820 is back in print!

As Leland states, "The county has always been used as the basic Federal census unit. Genealogical research in the censsus, therefore, begins with identifying the correct county jurisdictions. This work (one of the top-five best selling genealogy books) shows all U.S. county boundaries from 1790 to 1920. On each of the nearly 400 maps the old county lines are superimposed over the modern ones to highlight the boundary changes at ten-year intervals."

And that's not all! For more details and ordering info, click here. This is a guidebook that belongs on every genealogist's book shelf. You might even print out the announcement and hint to your family that it would make a perfect Christmas gift. Don't just look at the pictures (maps), be sure to read all the prefatory info and the material on each page. You will be amazed at all this guide offers.

Religious distribution in the U.S. today

Today's Boston Globe has a story about the distribution of religions in the U.S. today. You can read the entire story here. The story is accompanied by a series of maps showing the distribution of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and those who consider themselves non-religious. I saw a few states that surprised me, but overall the map is what I expected.

This is the work of the polling company, Gallup. Gallup has a more complete article here. The survey was compiled via telephone.

For historic religious distribution maps check these websites:

• The Library of Congress website has scanned images of religious distribution in 1890.

• The David Rumsey Map Collection website has some religious atlases.
  

• Google Books has a preview of the Atlas of American Religion.

Many such maps and atlases can be found in map libraries and in the reference sections of public, historical and university libraries.

Topographical Maps

Tonight as I read the San Jose Mercury News online I saw an interesting article about U.S. Geological Survey topograpical maps and genealogical research. Genealogy was even spelled correctly! To read the article in the July 8th edition: http://www.mercurynews.com/lifeandstyleheadlines/ci_6328874

You may be wondering why I was reading the San Jose newspaper when I live in St. Paul? Many moons ago we lived in neighboring Mountain View, California when my husband was stationed at the Moffett Field Naval air base. My oldest son was born while we lived there and I occasionally check websites related to the area.