Folks, Happy New Year ! I want to thank Pat Stark for the great intro and parts 2 thru 11 on the Fultons of Ontario, NY. I have really been enjoying them tremenously. Well here is my part 1 on mapping - better late than never. As we begin sharing research techniques to solve this mystery of Ernie and Clark's James Wesley Fulton, I feel that we will all learn a lot. By the way, please feel free at anytime to add to this discussion not only about specific information that may help them, but also about research methods or tools that you have found useful in researching. We all learn from each other. You will have to forgive me - before joining IBM as a programmer in the 1980's and continuing as a project manager in the 1990's, my previous career was a school teacher in the 1970's, so this learning/teaching focus still runs deep in my veins. If this discussion is not of interest to you, just delete it. But I think that although you may not be interested in the specific information to help Ernie and Clark, I think that the general methods of how to research that will be an integral thread of this discussion will be useful to everyone. But to benefit from it will require some time on your part. Join us and have fun ! At the Overview session at Salt Lake City, Pat reviewed some basic techniques of how to get started: 1) Start with what you know. 2) Work backward through time. 3) Weigh the evidence on how confident the information is correct. So James Wesley Fulton's pension documents indicate his birth as 3 May 1841 and his sister Cornelia stated her brother was born in Geneva, New York. Where is Geneva, NY in 1841 ? Keep in mind it may or may not be the same place in modern maps. I use the following tools to help me find locations: 1) U.S. Tiger Map Browser http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl Search for Geneva, NY and notice that in the U.S. Gazetteer one city and three county subdivisions come up. In this case, their longitude and latitude numbers are all close together. - Browse Tiger Map of Area - Move to a new center by clicking about 2" left of the lake so you will see two of the finger lakes - Notice you can zoom in and out by using the selections on the upper right - Notice on the lower right you can redraw the map and turn on labels. I suggest you experiment turning on one item at a time so you can see how the map changes. I believe the census tracts are the townships, and although I can see their outline in purple, I have not been able to determine how to turn on their names. 2) Geographic Names Information System United States and Territories http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html When dealing with locations that may no longer exist, I like to use the GNIS because sometimes even though the populated place may no longer exist, a feature near its former location such as a creek, a cemetery, a mountain may still cary its name. This helped me once to determine that the birthplace of a Fulton in Rochester, NY in the early 1800s was in Ulster Co (a church, creek, township) and NOT the large city of Rochester, NY in Monroe Co. This is also useful to find a list of certain features as cemeteries, although often the old cemeteries are not listed. To get a list do the following: - Feature Name- leave blank if you do not know its name - State: New York - Feature Type: Cemetery - County: Ontario - Select Send Query button - Select a cemetery - On next screen select Show Feature location and then submit Look up Geneva, New York. All the results listed are in Ontario, Co except for the one Geneva Lake, Pine Plains, Dutchess Co. If the research in Ontario County does not prove to be helpful, I would then look at the Dutchess County, even though it is a lake, because at one time they may have been an inhabited place by the name Geneva that at one time was by the lake but is now obsolete. And I already know there is a Fulton community in the 1800s in Pine Plains. When they list, Geneva Town of, that means a township. The township of Geneva was created from Seneca Township in 1872, but the village of Geneva was incorporated in 1806. So if the city of Geneva is the right place, in 1841 it would be listed in Seneca Township, Ontario Co, New York. 3) U.S. 1895 Atlas http://www.livgenmi.com/1895.htm 4) Mapquest (modern day) http://www.mapquest.com/ 5) Township Atlas of the United States compiled by Jay Androit Document Index, Inc, Box 195, McLean, VA, 1998. Many local libraries have this book that gives the modern day townships for every county in the U.S. I find it helpful to photocopy the counties I am studying. 6) Atlas & Gazetteer for every state by DeLorme Mapping Publishers http://www.delorme.com/ These Atlases are available for each state and cost about $17. Many of them show topographical features, township names and boundaries and lots of physical features. They are excellent. 7) U.S. GenWeb project at: http://www.usgenweb.net/ and select U.S. State Pages or go directly to http://www.usgenweb.net/statelinks.html and select New York, then Ontario County, then maps Look at 1880 maps of Geneva and Stanley (did you see J.P. Fulton at the bottom ?) 8) Ancestry Redbook edited by Alice Eichholz, Salt Lake City, Utah 1992 or The Handybook for Genealogists United States of America, Everton Publishers These two books show the counties for each state and describe the date they were created. 9) Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William Dollarhide, Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc. Baltimore, 1997. It shows maps of the borders of the counties in each state for each census. In 1800 Ontario Co was from the current modern Ontario but also included most of the counties west of it. In 1810, it was smaller than in 1800, but still included parts of four other modern day counties. 10) Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of new York State by J. H. French 1860, 1993 reprint by Heart of the Lakes Publishing, Interlaken, NY. p 497 Manchester Twp formed 1822 [originally called Burt in 1821] p 496 Hopewell Twp formed 1822 p 496 Gorham Twp 1807 {1789 called Easton, 1806 called Lincoln] p 497 Phelps Twp 1796 [1823 part went to Lyons, Wayne Co] p 498 Seneca Twp 1793 p 717 Yates Co formed from Ontario Coin 1823 p 720 Middlesex Twp formed 1789 as Augusta, name changed to Middlesex in 1808, Potter Twp taken off in 1832 So for our discussion, we have the following: In New York State nestled between the two finger lakes of Canandaigua Lake and Seneca Lake are Ontario Co and Yates Co. with the townships listed below. The distance between these two finger lakes is about 12-15 miles. The village of Stanley is about in the center of Seneca Twp. The village of Geneva is located in the NW corner of Seneca Lake. (Wayne CO) - ----------------------------------------------------------------- (Ontario CO) | Seneca CO. Manchester Twp | | Phelps Twp | C Hopewell Twp S A E N Geneva Twp N A Gorham Twp Seneca Twp E N L C D A (Ontario CO) A A K---------------------------------------------------- I E (Yates CO) L G Middlesex Twp Potter Twp Benton Twp Torrey Twp A U K A E I tracked down the location of Lincoln, Ontario to one of two places within about 30 miles of each other. 1) Modern day Lincoln post office in Walworth Township in Wayne Co., NY near the border of Monroe Co. Wayne Co was formed from Ontario County and Seneca County in 1823. Thus Lincoln Post Office would have been in Ontario County before 1823. 2) Lincoln is also an obsolete name for a township in current Ontario County, NY. The Township of Easton became Lincoln in April 1806, and Gorham a year later. It is located on the east side of Canandaigua Lake for about a length of seven miles. (History of Ontario County NY and Its People by Charles F. Milliken, Vol 1, Lewis Historical Publ Co, NY 1911, page 50.) I believe this is the Lincoln mentioned in the PA deed. I think the John Fulton of Lincoln, Ontario Co, NY is the same John that appears in the 1800 federal census in Ontario County. That is why my yellow post-it for him was in Stanley, Ontario Co, New York and not in Wayne Co. More will follow... Roberta R. (Fulton) Hirth Harriman, New York 10926 FULTON web page at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~elisa96/hirth/fulton.htm