Tag: Maps

Mapping West Philadelphia

I‘ve been working on the Philadelphia Hocker branch of the family for my book A Hacker/Hocker Family recently. (Lots of new information and lines!) Imagine how happy I was to find the “Mapping West Philadelphia: Landowners in October 1777” website.

Mapping West Philadelphia 1777

George Hocker’s tract in Whitemarsh and Springfield townships (green tract to center-left)

It’s a “web-based, geographic data application open to the public. It was developed by the University of Pennsylvania’s University Archives and Records Center from research provided by J.M. Duffin. The website is designed to assist scholarly research and the general public in efforts to analyze, interpret and understand the history of the growth of West Philadelphia and the greater Philadelphia area at the time of the American Revolution.”

It shows road and land owners from 1777 in situ. You can see the location of a tract of land in relationship to roads, other land owners, and the 1777 township borders. You can even turn on a modern street overlay so you can see where the tract is in relationship to modern roads—perfect for locating an ancestors’ tract! Select your choice of streets, terrain, even a Google satellite image as a background with the tracts as overlay.

I’ve had a good idea of where George Hocker’s tract sat, but finding this site verified the information I had. For some reason, I was surprised to see how close it was to Germantown.

For someone like me who loves to use land patents and deeds to track the ownership of parcels of land to help define relationships among people, this site is a fantastic find!

Where Did My Christian Hoover Live?

One of the difficulties in researching Christian Hoover has been trying to find the location of his property. Through family stories, I know he lived in Clearfield County—either Covington or Karthaus townships. My grandmother remembers having family picnics there when she was growing up—the family moved from Clearfield County to Pine Glen, Burnside Township, Centre County when she was two—so it couldn’t have been too far away from the Pine Glen/Karthaus area.

I’ve searched for deeds for Christian Hoover with no luck. All I’ve been able to find are the deeds where his children and widow sold his property after his death in 1888. I’ve no idea when or from whom he received the property. These deeds place Christian Hoover’s 50-acre farm in Covington Township and as being part of the “Dodge lands” and warrant no. 5404.1

Now, this map shows the tract for Dodge, James & Stokes, no. 5404 (see top right corner of pink area).

Caldwell's 1878 Covington township map

Northern Covington Township, 1878

According to this map, Christian Hoover’s farm was on a branch of the Mosquito Creek. A modern atlas shows this tributary as Twelvemile Run. Given it’s location, it’s possible that the deed was recorded not in Clearfield County, but in the county to the north—Cameron County.

Unfortunately, a search in the Cameron County deed index does not turn up any deeds for Christian Hoover.

So, when did Christian and family arrive in Covington Township? The family, I believe, is in Henderson Township, Jefferson County at the time of the 1860 US Federal census.2 Christian was of Gaskill Township, Jefferson County in 1863 when he was drafted for the Civil War.3 I haven’t found any of the family in the 1870 census. But Caroline (Kinnard) Hoover was of Covington Township, Clearfield County when she died in Feb 1877.4

So, sometime between 1863 and 1877, Christian Hoover moved his family from Jefferson County to the northern section of Covington Township, Clearfield County. Tax records—if they exist—might help to pinpoint when Christian moved onto his 50-acre farm, but beyond that I’m all out of suggestions.

Do you have any research ideas? If so, please send them my way!

Friday Finds: Scottish Maps

One of the joys of browsing other genealogy blogs—besides getting ideas on how to organize information, which always intrigues the designer in me—is finding new goodies to help my research. So, hat’s off to Kathleen Moore for finding and posting two helpful maps of Scotland in her blog “The Misadventures of a Genealogist”.

The first is a map showing the locations of the various Scottish clans. The only surname I recognize from my family is Buchanan, shown just to the north of the Highland border line, northwest of Glasgow. My Buchanans seemed to have been miners and were located in Shotts in Lanarkshire.

Scottish Clan map

Scottish Clan map (src: Geneawiki)

The second map shows the administrative subdivisions in Scotland. The majority of my Scottish ancestors lived in Lothian (East, West & Mid), Lanarkshire, and parts of the Scottish Borders.

Scottish Administrative Subdivisions

Scottish Administrative Subdivisions (src: Wikipedia)

Huber/Hoover Map of Lancaster County, PA

I’m in the middle project on the Huber/Hoover family, specifically looking at Lancaster County and Fayette County, Pennsylvania and Washington County, Maryland—with the likelihood of branching out to additional areas like Somerset County, Bedford County, Franklin County, Dauphin County… A big undertaking!

I’ve started by looking at deeds and land warrants for Lancaster County. Being a visual person, I wanted some way of seeing spatial relationship between the locations from these records. I tried combining data from the warrantee township maps, but decided to try a simpler approach.

I put together a map of the original townships of Lancaster County that were within its current boundaries. Lancaster originally included much more land, including parts of Dauphin, Lebanon, Berks, Cumberland, York, Adams and Franklin counties. For my purposes I wanted to focus on a smaller area. On this map I plotted the approximate locations of Huber/Hoover tracts from the land warrants prior to 1800.

Lancaster County Huber/Hoover land warrant tracts

I can’t guarantee that I’ve got everyone correct. John Jacob and Jacob Huber in Conestoga (now Pequea) could have been the same man. The two tracts adjoin. Since the patents were for John Jacob Huber (from Martin Kendig, 1736) and Jacob Huber (from John Smith, 1759), I indicated them separately.

Also, I haven’t determined if all the tracts in Warwick and Manheim Townships were to the same Jacob Huber. Jacob Huber (ca 1708-1767), the founder and ironmaster of Elizabeth Furnace, did own substantial amounts of property. So, it is likely the same man.

I must caution that proximity does NOT necessarily always indicate a relationship. According to Harry Hoover’s book on the descendants of Hans Hoober of Earl Township, Hans’ son Jacob owned property in Martic Township—he was likely the John Jacob Huber—quite a ways away from his father’s land. Hans and Martin of Earl Township are, however, grandfather and grandson.

Pennsylvania Genealogical County Map

If you do genealogy, then you’ve got to love maps. Maps can help get you oriented, organized and straightened out when the research—and all the little bits of data you’ve collected—gets confusing.  Say you find records under the same name, but in different townships. A map can help you to decide whether the records are likely to be for one man or more than one man.

What always trips me up, however, is that maps don’t stay the same over time. Records for one location may be in a different township or county—or even state—years or decades earlier or later. For instance, John2 Hoover’s (Andrew1) property in Greene County was originally part of land claimed by Virginia, so documentation can be found in Monongalia County, now West Virginia. But after Virginia and Pennsylvania settled their claims, part of John’s land was in Westmoreland County then Washington County, where the copied survey can be found, and finally Greene County.

Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties

Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties

What I love about the Genealogical Map of the Pennsylvania Counties from the Pennsylvania Land Office is that it shows the counties over time. You can see when certain parts of the Commonwealth were purchased. It also tells you when each county was created. For instance, the Fayette County area was part of land purchased in 1768. But Fayette County wasn’t created until 1783. It also shows you that Fayette was originally part of Cumberland County (#6), then Westmoreland County (#11).

The full map also includes little vignettes that show the counties for specific years. You can see how the jurisdictional landscape changed through the years. It also includes information on each of the 33 land purchases from 1682 through 1792 that established the boundaries of the state of Pennsylvania.

You should check out this valuable resource at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. And while you’re there, check out their other fantastic map resources!

Update 11/2012: If you would like a copy of this map, you can purchase it at the Pennsylvania State Bookstore – shoppaheritage.com. It’s a bargain at $2.00 for an 11×17 poster. The downloadable PDF is NOT printable.

Pennsylvania Warrant Township Maps

I’m always looking for new ways to research my family. Living in New England, I’m a long way away from sources of Pennsylvania information. So, I especially love to find FREE sources of information ONLINE. The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and State Archives usually have something good.

Jacob Hoover's German twp property

Jacob Hoover’s German Township property

In the past I’ve used the online Pennsylvania Warrant records and Patent indexes and the Copied Survey books to find surveys for land my ancestor settled. On my most recent visit to the site, I noticed that they’ve added PDF files of the Warrantee Township Maps.

These show the all the original land purchases within the context of the present-day townships. You can see your ancestor’s property in and amongst their neighbors. The map also provides the name of warrantee, name of patentee, number of acres, name of tract, and dates of warrant, survey and patent. It makes a nice summary and geographical index of the warrant/patent information of each township.

Please remember that the townships are shown by present-day boundaries. I spent some time looking in the townships referred to in the surveys I’ve obtained. Several townships later, I finally found what I was looking for. So, make sure you look in the current township.

While you can download these file to view, you can’t print them. However, if you’re interested in getting a paper copy, you can purchase one from the archives.

Drop me a reply and let me know what you find!

Map of My Research Places

I’ve created a personal map on Google Maps of some of my research places. I find it very helpful to see the locations I’ve found in my research on a map. It gives me a better idea of the distances between places and also shows me the surrounding villages/town. Proximity can make a good case for relationships.

It includes:

  • Ittlingen: Possible German birthplace of Andrew Huber (1738), ancestor of Pres. Hoover
  • Mosbach: German home of my Greulich family
  • Rußheim: German home of my Hacker family
  • Graben: German home of my Jock family
  • Ellerstadt: Possible German birthplace of Andreas Huber (1754), father of my proposed ancestor George Hoover
  • Trippstadt: Possible German birthplace of Andrew Hoover (1741)
  • Thaleishweiler: Possible German birthplace of Andrew Hoover (1741)
  • Durlach: German home of the Weidman family
  • Sinsheim: German birthplace of Margaretha Pfautz, wife of Andrew Huber (1738)
  • Epfenbach: German origins of Hans Adam Ziegler
  • Leitersburg, MD: US home of Andreas Huber (1754) from 1754 through 1779
  • Uniontown, PA: US home of Andreas Huber (1754) from ca 1779 through 1784

View Kris Hocker’s places in a larger map

Google maps is a great resource. Especially for those parts of the world where you don’t already own an atlas.