Plotting With a Plat Map
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| 1860 Plat Map of Springfield, Mercer, Pennsylvania |
I recently discovered this plat map dated 1860 of Mercer County, Pennsylvania showing where my 4th and 5th great grandfathers, both named Adam Grim, lived. (Bottom third and left of center next to the color changed notch.) This is significant because both go missing from between 1850 and 1880 leading to a great confusion between armchair genealogists that often combine them into one person. I wrote about this a year and a half ago here.
In 1860, my 5th great grandfather Adam Grim Sr. is likely dead but his son was most likely living at the site of his mill along the Indian Run river that is a tributary to the larger Nashannock Creek that you can see more clearly in the above map. Adam A. Grim Jr. though was very much alive as he is living with two different children in the 1880 Census taken a few week apart. Why he never shows up in the 1860 or 1870 Censuses, I can't say for sure. Perhaps because of his itinerant nature, possibly as a peddler, he was never home. This might be in part explained by the most likely early death of his wife and why I have found some of his kids nearby living with older, married siblings. Perhaps because his home is so close to the boundary between counties and four different townships, he was just missed by the census taker. So I was excited to see this plat map so I could compared it to the census taken during those years and perhaps discern a cause.
I searched the 1860 census record first for the highlighted Springfield Township in Mercer County and found the page (one of 36 pages) where the census taker was in the area and recording the information for his neighbors but left no clues as to the where abouts of Adam. The dwelling numbers assigned to each family are congruent meaning nobody was skipped because they weren't home. On the 1870 census, one person was skipped nearby though after paging through all 34 pages, it doesn't look like any attempt was ever made to go back and fill in the information missed. So in the end, finding the plat map page seems to have been for naught.
I suppose the one neat thing is that by overlaying the 1860 plat map with Google Maps, I can get an approximate location of where my 4th and 5th great grandfathers lived so if I'm ever in the area, perhaps I can get permission from whomever owns the land to do some exploring. I will definitely need to bring some bug and tick spray with me!
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| Google Maps |
We have quite a few plat maps around our house. Isn't it great we now have Google Maps to enhance them?!
ReplyDeleteI am a sucker for old maps. I have a few of them adorning the walls of my office at "art". I don't have any modern day satellite maps but I might if I can think of an interesting place to add to my collection.
DeleteWell found, as usual.
ReplyDeleteBetter to be lucky than good... I've heard.
DeleteYoung people (except for the ones like you) don't have maps or know what to do with them. Instead they use their phones or GPS. I find maps very helpful, giving me context of where something is in relation to the whole. You combine both the old and the new. That is really excellent!
ReplyDeleteI love the context maps provide. My wife will accuse me of being lost but I will explain that I can't be lost because with haven't crossed roads A, B, C, or D which surround us.
DeleteYour research is astounding. I've found old censuses to be much more helpful (and fascinating) than I ever expected when I started working with genealogy.
ReplyDeleteAs I write research notes on my ancestors, which includes all the information found on Census records, I find more and more things that I never really paid attention too before when I was mostly concerned with moving back my tree one more level.
DeleteGood gosh.... That's a lot of area to explore.
ReplyDeleteBut the remains of an old mill site should be fairly easy to spot, I would think.
DeleteEd, I still lug around paper maps in my car for places I am living in. Because you just never know.
ReplyDeleteI don’t anymore with my cellphone on my person, but I do have paper maps at home that I study before leaving on a journey.
DeleteI'm intrigued by old maps, and even more so when you can connect them with family history. I spend hours on Google Maps and Google Earth for hiking purposes. Cool post!
ReplyDeleteSince most of my hikes involved dense trees, I don't often look at maps for them. But I do look at maps for hours on end for other reasons.
DeleteAnother good round of research, Ed. I do believe you are going to need a machete as well.
ReplyDeletePerhaps long sleeves to ward off poison ivy as well. Maybe a dozen porters to carry my gear too!
DeleteWhat an interesting plat map. I've never seen one like that before. And, I didn't realize maps like that could be layered with google maps. Definitely a useful feature!
ReplyDeleteWell I should clarify by layer, I meant I could look at them side by side and figure out corresponding locations. But I'm sure there are programs that could turn one of them translucent and overlay them in actuality.
DeleteIt definitely was not for naught as you have more information and can now move on to other areas. Great job on your research, I wish I lived closer to where my family lived so I could do similar research.
ReplyDeleteI live a long way from Pennsylvania but someday, I would like to travel to some of these places and so keep their knowledge in my back pocket for the time being.
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