Hello all, I am returning to the subject of maps that was covered last month. I've twice recently stopped in the Tax Assessors Office at the Screven Co. Courthouse and had a look at aerial photographic maps. Why did I want to look at the tax maps of the county? Well, they often show cemetaries (including old ones that are now hard to find) and other features hidden away in the less accessible parts of the county and how they lie within the woods that surround them. The tax accessor's office has aerial photographs taken in both 1999 and 1988. And, they still retain some images of aerial photos taken in 1977. The nice thing about these aerial photos is that they can memeograph them for three dollars, apiece. Get the aerial photos for an area for two or more decades of change and you might be able to find a lost cemetary or other distinguishing feature / lankmark. I have examples of these maps for the area surrounding my family's property and features such as buildings, logging roads, and odd little clearings in the woods are clearly visible. I also have the aerial map 79 for 1999 & 1988 and can clearly see both of the Reddick cemetaries lying between GA 24 and US 301, near Jacksonboro. I've also looked at other aerial maps for the Cameron area and can clearly see one of the cemetaries that several members of the list have been searching for (maybe it's the one they have been looking for - maybe they have already seen this one [I'm not sure]). I viewed this cemetary on aerial maps for 1999, 1988, and 1977. That's 22 years of overhead imagery with which to note changes in the condition of the area and try to find features that are no longer visible while one is onsite at ground level. If you have copies of the USGS topographic maps then you can use both together and in conjunction to help determine exact locations of old settlement sites or cemetaries when the landscape has been changed by the introduction of things like pine plantations. These aerial maps clearly display changes in the condition of the ground as the decades pass. New plantings of pine plantations stand out. Woods converted to fields and the reverse are readily understood from viewing the aerial photos. Perhaps an overgrown clearing containing an old cemetary will be visible in an arial photo from an earlier decade. As an alternative source for aerial maps - here is a site for a USGS service that (mostly) offers three different aerial photographic views of different areas within any county. For example, three images photographed aerially at three different times across about a decade offer a useful tool for evaluating the lay of the land when searching for old landmarks or structures. You can order these photographic maps (place the order online and then call to give credit card information or make provision for other means of payment) and perhaps you can find a 'missing' cemetary or other structure (old road, etc.) on one or more of the images. http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/Webglis/glisbin/finder I hope that this information proves to be useful for those in search of their past. Dale E. Reddick