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Research using Maps
1 : Obtain maps in as many scales as
possible, this enables you to not only see what part of the country your
ancestors came from, the larger scales will show the street or even the
house they lived in.
2 : Maps are not just flat images, by understanding contour lines you can
visualize the hills and valleys that formed natural barriers.
3 : Use your maps to understand why your ancestors walked five miles to
market when there was a market only half a mile from their house, was there
a river in between or a cliff, perhaps one market was in a town (better
price for goods) whilst another was in a village (cheaper produce).
4 : Your maps will show the adjacent parishes where your ancestors may have
moved or married
5 : One handy implement when using maps is a coloured transparent disc with
a radius of 16 miles. Place the disc with its center on the village of your
ancestor. In the majority of marriages his or her partners will come from
a village contained in the area under your coloured disc.
6 : Use old maps to visualise the area in the time of your ancestors, before
motorways and railways carved up the countryside
7 : Use the maps to find out what route your ancestors walked to church
or to school.
8 : Compare the landscape your ancestor knew with the landscape of today,
notice how the area has become more built up and the countryside diminished.
9 : Plot the positions of your ancestors families where they migrated, where
their partners came from and where they ended up, understand the relationships
of those places
10 : Visualise the landscape your anscetor lived in by the clues drawn on
the map.