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Creating an Ancestor’s Emigration Path in Google Earth
Elevenses with Lisa LIVE show (Premium Members exclusive): Learn how to create an interactive Google Earth map of your ancestors’ story using the Path tool. I’ll show you how I recreated my Great Grandmother’s life path including her emigration in 1910. The possibilities for using the Path tool are endless. All you need is the research you’ve already done, the free Google Earth software installed on your computer, and my step-by-step process.
Show Notes
You can draw free-form paths on your map to represent the movements of your ancestors. Paths share all of the features of placemarks including name, description, style view, and location.
How to Add a Path:
- Mark the locations you want to use to create your path with placemarks. This will help you easily find each location as you create the path.
- Zoom in to your map as close as you can while still being able to see all of the locations. If this isn’t possible, zoom to see at least the first two locations.
- Click the Path button on the toolbar. (Image right)
- The New Path box will appear, and the cursor will change to a square drawing tool.
- Enter the name and description of the path.
- Click the Style tab.
- Click the color box to pick the color of the path.
- Select the desired width of the path line from the Width drop-down menu.
- Click on the locations in the order of the life events (birth to death, or town of origin to Ellis Island to their new home in America). If you need to turn the globe in order to get to the next location, click OK to close the path window. Then re-adjust your view of the map so you can see the last location and then next location. Right-click on the path and select Properties to reopen it, and then click on the next location to continue the path.
- When complete, click OK on the New Path box.
- Go back and delete the original placemarks if desired.
Once you have created a path, you can play it as its own tour by clicking on the path in the Places panel to select it. A Play Tour button will appear in the bottom of the Places panel. (It will have the path icon on it.) Click the button and the path tour will begin to play and move from location to location. This works much better for smaller local paths because it moves rather slow and will be close to the ground.
For larger paths, record your path as a Tour. Click the Record a Tour button in the toolbar, and then click the red button to record. Navigate from placemark to placemark. When you’re done, click the red record button again to stop. Then click the Save button in the play bar. You will see the recorded tour in the Places panel. Drag and drop it to the desired location in the folder. I tend to put the tour at the top of the folder.
How to Record a Family History Path Tour:
- Click to select your tour folder in the Places panel.
- Fly to the location where you want to begin your tour.
- Click the Record a Tour button on the toolbar.
- A small recording panel will appear in the bottom of the 3D viewer.
- Press the red Record or Microphone button depending on whether or not you wish to record audio.
- Following your outline, navigate the map as you wish for it to be seen in the recording, highlighting placemarks and other noteworthy content. Start with all of the content boxes unchecked except for the Tour Guide placemark. This will keep your map clean and simple when you begin. Click the white space around the title of the first item in the Places panel to fly to that location. Then click the check box for the location when you are ready to reveal it. With a little practice, you can navigate smoothly and with purpose. Continue navigating through the items, checking and unchecking boxes to reveal content as desired.
- When finished, pause a few seconds and then click the red button again to stop.
- The recorded tour will automatically begin to play back in the player bar at the bottom of the screen.
- Click the Save button on the player and a New Tour window will open. (Image right)
- Type a name for the tour. I like to name mine something like “Click here to play tour” so that the folks I send the KMZ file will find it easy to use.
- Type a description of what the tour will cover.
- Click OK.
- From the menu click File > Save > Save My Places to save your work.
Recording Tip: Let the recorder run a few extra seconds after you have finished before you stop the recording. This will ensure that your recording is not cut short prematurely as Google Earth can sometimes shave a few seconds off the recording.
As a tour plays, the user can “look around” by clicking and dragging the map. This will temporarily pause the tour. When the play button is clicked again, the tour resumes where it left off. This will come in handy when the user wants to explore Street View in a location.
How to Save Your Family History Path Tour for Sharing:
- In the Places panel, right-click the tour folder and select Save Place As.
- In the pop-up window name the file as desired.
- Save it to the desired location on your computer, such as your desktop. Be sure to leave the file type as KMZ.
- Click OK.
- Close Google Earth.
- Go to the location on your computer where you saved your file.
- Click on KMZ file you just created. This will automatically re-launch Google Earth and display all of the saved tour content.
- Click on the various content icons to test them.
Now that your family history content is neatly packaged into a KMZ file it’s ready to be sent to family, friends and fellow researchers. The easiest way to do that is to email it. Open your preferred email program, create a new email message, and attach the KMZ file that you saved to your desktop. When the recipient opens the file it will automatically launch in Google Earth, providing they have Google Earth installed on their computer.
Resources
- My book The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox includes 7 chapters on using Google Earth for genealogy. Available at the Genealogy Gems Store.
- Downloadable Show Notes handout.
- Download How to Host Images for User in Google Earth
Available in the Genealogy Gems Store
Marriage Records and Gretna Greens – Audio Podcast Episode 274
Gretna Green is a term you need to know if you are searching for marriage records. In this video professional genealogist J. Mark Lowe joins me to discuss Gretna Green: what it means, why it matters, and how Gretna Greens may have affected your ability to find your ancestors’ marriage records.
Listen to the Podcast Episode
To Listen click the media player below (AUDIO ONLY):
Show Notes & Video Version of this Episode
Show notes article and watch the video version: Gretna Green and Marriage Records with J. Mark Lowe.
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Podcast Resources
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Discover the FamilySearch Wiki WOW Factor! (Beginner Tutorial)
Show Notes: The FamilySearch Wiki is like a free encyclopedia of genealogy! In this FamilySearch Wiki tutorial, discover the wealth of information the Wiki has to offer, and learn the secrets to navigating it with ease. We’ll also cover the number #1 reason people get frustrated when searching the Wiki and how to overcome it.
Watch the Video
RootsTech has set the class video to “private”. You can watch it on their website by going to the video page in their on-demand library. You may need to sign in to your free FamilySearch account in order to watch it.
Enjoy this special free tutorial video which was originally presented at the RootsTech conference. Download the ad-free Show Notes cheat sheet for this video class. (Premium Membership required.)
What is a Wiki?
A wiki is a website that
- Allows collaborative editing platform for users
- doesn’t require HTML editing
- has links to both internal and external resource pages
- The FamilySearch Wiki is a lot like Wikipedia. It’s basically an encyclopedia of information. But the exciting part is that it’s specific to genealogy. This means you don’t usually have to worry about including the word genealogy in your searches.
What Does the FamilySearch Wiki Do?
The FamilySearch Wiki is focused on providing information for genealogy research such as:
- how to find data
- where to find data
- how to analyze and use the data
What are the sources of Wiki content?
- Original material was added from the old Family History Library research outlines.
- User added material in their areas of genealogical expertise. The Wiki is constantly being updated by LDS missionaries and other volunteers as new material is discovered or released.
Don’t worry about Contributor info.
You’re going to see many things about wiki creation and management. Not everything is relevant to you when just wanting to find information. In fact, the majority of the Help section is geared to people creating, editing and maintaining pages. Don’t worry about being a contributor. Enjoy being a user.
2 Ways to Access the FamilySearch Wiki
- Going directly to https://www.familysearch.org/wiki. Although you can sign into your free FamilySearch account on this page (in the upper right corner) it isn’t necessary in order to use it.
- Logging in at the FamilySearch website. In the menu under Search click Research Wiki. By logging in and you’ll have access to additional features like participating in discussions, posting and creating watchlists.
The FamilySearch Wiki focuses on records, not ancestors.
Keep in mind that the purpose of the Wiki is to explain where genealogical materials are located and how to get access to them. The Wiki does not have individual ancestor information. If you want to find records, start by deciding specifically what kind of records you want. Identify when and where the ancestor lived at the time the record was created. Then head to the Wiki to figure out what records are available and where they can be found.
The Wiki links to:
- Materials that available at FamilySearch.org or any other online genealogy website.
- Materials that are not available at FamilySearch.org or any other online genealogy site.
- Materials that were previously unknown or newly made available online.
- Strategies and techniques for finding and researching genealogical records.
Types of Searches
Topic Search: When searching for information on a specific topic such as probate records, type the topic into the Search box. As you type, a list of pages with the topic word or words in the title appears below the Search box. If one of the listed pages is the desired topic, highlight and press enter. If you don’t pick from the drop-down list you will get a results list of every page that includes the topic.
Vital records Search: FamilySearch recommends using the Guided Search for info on vital records.
Location Search in the search box: When only the name of any country, state in the U.S., province in Canada, or county in England is typed in the Search box you will be taken directly to that Wiki page. For example: If Texas is searched the result is the Texas, United States Genealogy page.
Page Title: If you happen to know the exact title of the Wiki article you want, type it in the Search Box.
How to Overcome the #1 Search Problem
Many people will search for something like marriage records, Randolph, County, Indiana, and they will get a list of results. The results don’t look as clear-cut as Google results, and they may not all be on topic. This is where we can get lost. I think probably the number one reason why people give up on the wiki is they get these kinds of search results. They realize, wait a second, this isn’t even Indiana, it’s talking about Kentucky! Why am I getting all these? It can be frustrating.
This happens because we tried to do it ourselves, with our own keywords. Remember, like most search engines, they’ve indexed their content to make it searchable, so that means they’ve already decided how they want to talk about a particular topic. Rather than just addressing marriage record first, the wiki focuses on the location. Where is this marriage record? So, focus first on the place unless you are just looking for general information on a general genealogy topic such as genealogy software.
Pre-filled suggestions will appear as you type because the wiki is going to suggest what it has in the format it has it. Again, you may want to first go to the country, state or county-level page and then look for the record type.
If you’re looking for marriage records but you don’t see them listed it might be that the word marriage isn’t the keyword the wiki uses. Or it might be that the type of record you’re looking for is a state or federal record.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see what you want listed in the table of contents. It may just be a keyword issue. Let the work that they’ve already done in organizing their materials guide you. You’ll be more successful and also avoid frustration. The FamilySearch Wiki is just too good of a resource to miss.
The FamilySearch Wiki Search box
You can run three main types of searches:
- Single key words,
- phrases,
- and search strings.
Resource: Wiki Search Help Page
Search Operators
- Quotes: Odd Fellows – 49 results versus “Odd Fellows” – 32 results
- Minus sign
- OR
- Word stemming applies: car will also find cars
- Intitle:Dunkards
- subpageof:”Requests for comment”
- Numrange doesn’t work on the wiki
- Use Google site search to search using Google’s engine and search operators!
Map Search
Generally speaking, the map is the best way to search for records and information that is rooted in a location. Start by clicking the button for the continent, such as North America. From there, select the county from the menu, such as United States, then drill down by state. This will take you to the Wiki entry for that state.
Location-based FamilySearch Wiki Pages
If you’re really new to research in a particular location, start with the guided research link on the location’s wiki page. You may also see links to research strategies, record finder, and record types.
Getting Started section – links to step-by-step research strategies and the most popular records.
The county pages are where the real magic happens because many records such as birth, marriage, death, and court records are typically available at the county level. There you’ll find out how to contact or visit the current county courthouse. Look for Boundary Changes on the page. Use your computer’s Find on Page feature by pressing Control + F (PC) or Command + F (mac) on your keyboard to more quickly find words like Boundary on the page.
Exploring Record Collection Pages
Many record collections have their own page on the Wiki. As you type, these pages will populate in the drop-down list. Example: German Census Records. Take a moment to read through the page and you’ll discover some important information that will save you time and headaches, such as:
- When censuses were taken
- National versus local censuses and their various levels
- Censuses in areas where boundaries have changed over time
- Various types of census forms we may encounter
- The purpose behind the creation of census records in Germany
- The kind of information we can expect to find in the German census
- Other types of records containing similar information
- Resource articles (including a handout from a past RootsTech)
- Wiki articles describing online collections
There are a couple of actions we may want to take before going on to search for records. Here are a few:
Click on the Category to see what else is attached to this category – in this case we see some example images that are helpful in interpreting German census forms.
Click the Cite this page link in the left column if we plan to reference the page elsewhere.
Click Printable Version in the left column if we want a printable or PDF version of the page.
Explore related pages by clicking the What links here link in the column on the left. Notice it also shows if there are any other users watching the page.
Learn more about using Family Search
Videos at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems YouTube channel:
- FamilySearch Search Essentials
- All About GEDCOM (with FamilySearch)
- Get my free weekly email newsletter.