Grab your mug! This Elevenses with Lisa LIVE show is exclusively for Premium Members. In this Premium episode you’ll learn the benefits of digging deep into the places where your ancestors once lived and specifically:

• what you need to find out about ancestral locations
• how to find the information
• and you’ll get a handy worksheet template.

Originally aired live: June 2, 2022 at 11:00 am CT. The monthly Premium live show airs the first Thursday of the month and then is available as a video replay. 

Show Notes

Researching your family history helps you reconstruct the families that came before you. The ones who really made it possible for you to be here where you are right now.

In census records we see these families in family groups which helps us visualize them. However, there are some very powerful techniques that you can use to more firmly bring those pictures of your ancestors in your mind into focus. And that’s what we’re going to do today.

In fact, this is often what we “see” with our minds as we are going through genealogy records. The record my say this is “Winthrop Minnesota” but that’s it.

I’ve mentioned Winthrop MN many times over the years when providing examples because that’s where a line of my husband’s family comes from. And I’ve seen the name on hundreds of documents. But if I really want to be able to visualize the people I’m learning about, let alone tell anyone else their story, then I need to research not just the people, but the place.

These aren’t people just floating through space. They picked Winthrop as a place to live for a reason. They built certain styles of houses. They opened business based on population, weather, the agriculture of the area, the lay of the land, and so much more.

In fact, as a family historian, you really HAVE TO research the locations or else you’re just recording names and dates and you’re not really understanding the context of their lives.

Are you doing this on a regular basis? I know in my own case, I can be honest and say, No, I haven’t always done that. But these days, I make it a priority to build a complete profile of  important ancestral locations. And it really is a profile – sort of an “at a glance” cheat sheet that you can refer to again and again. And add to as well! So, let’s recap the benefits of really illuminating your ancestors’ location and creating a profile of it. 

Resources: 

• Download the blank form here
• Download the show notes

Benefits of Building a Location Profile

Shining a light on ancestral locations will help you:

• find more records more quickly because you’ll have information and resources at your fingertips in one place.
• better visualize your family’s story more accurately.
• tell your ancestors’ stories more powerfully with richer, more vivid details, making it more interesting to your family.

Example of a Complete Location Profile Form

This profile is going to become an indispensable quick reference sheet for you! It will guide you through collecting the information that you’ll need while giving you room to customize it just the way you want it. The form covers:

• An overview of the location
• Some of the key records to help you learn quickly about the location
• Key statistics to help round out the picture of the place.

This is by no means everything. But if you have this, you’ll have a pretty good picture. And you can customize this and add to it.

Notice that many of the items on the form include examples of resources, and links to the ones that are pretty universally applicable.

Download the blank form here

Filing the Form

Here’s an example of where I would store location information for my Larson family:

C:/ Genealogy > Surnames > Larson > Locations > Minnesota > Winthrop

Learn more about my digital file organization: Digital Organization. 

Quick and Easy Resources for Illuminating Locations

Here’s a summary of the resources listed on the form as well as some of my favorite universally applicable resources for finding information about a location. Some of these feature the records, and others help you find the answers for the time frame in which you are searching. (For example: which newspapers were published in the area at that time.)

There are many, many more location-based resources so I’ve included a place at the end to add yours to the list! (Tell us about them in the Comments section on the show notes page for this episode.)

County information:

The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (interactive and downloadable map)

Website: https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/

Maps

• Google Maps
• David Rumsey Map Collection
• Google Earth

Aerial Photos

Vintage Aerial: https://vintageaerial.com

State Census Records

• Google the state and state census records.
• Check state at FamilySearch Wiki

Newspapers

• Newspaper Directory at the Library of Congress

Website:  https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/

• Google newspaper name and archive

Location Stats

• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
• county and town histories at Google Books, WorldCat, ebay

Historical Weather Information

• Almanac: https://www.almanac.com/weather/history

General History of the Town

• Google Search: town name and state and history

Results example: https://www.winthropminnesota.com/city/historical-society/ 

• Google Books
• Internet Archive

Facebook Groups

Start with a simple search of the place, and then try adding a word like history.

Libraries

• The Public Library in that location
• Interlibrary loan through your public library
• WorldCat: https://www.worldcat.org

Videos

• YouTube
  (Learn more: https://lisalouisecooke.com/2021/05/26/how-to-find-family-history-on-youtube/)
• Internet Archive

(Learn more: https://lisalouisecooke.com/2021/02/15/internet-archive/ )

Resource: 

• Download the blank form here
• Download the show notes

Leave a Comment

What are some of your favorite location-based resources? Leave a comment below so others can add them to their form too!