Recently saw a very interesting collage. Someone scanned in a map of where their ancestor lived and used it as a watermark. Then, on top of it, they created a collage of photos of this man taken at various stages of his life, from childhood to adulthood. It really looked great and gave me some interesting ideas. I use the Gen Web Pages a lot. Most counties have some great resources, including maps. From the Decatur CO page, I located a map of the township my ancestors lived in. I couldn't copy the map, but it can be printed out and scanned and then the image can be copied and used for a watermark. Jesse Drake (my 4th great grandfather) and his sons, John, Benjamin, Dillard and Jesse's son-in-law Wm. Ross all owned land in Decatur CO. >From the BLM site, I got the description of that site. Using the map and the description it was easy to locate and understand where this land was at and how close they lived to each other. Now I can use that map as a watermark and type the description below : E1/2SW Section 19, Twp. 11-N, Range 10-E. I can copy and paste a family group sheet to the back of this and add it to Jesse's file. Just thought that some of you might want to try this for yourselves. Also, the BLM site offers a glossary of terms used on the land documents. It might be a good idea to copy them and keep them with the document. Barb Marshall

Hi Barb Thanks for sending the collage idea. You should send it to Ancestry.com "tips" I think it will make an interesting addition to our family history. Jerrie