Hi everyone: When you are researching your early (before 1900's), you really must have a fair knowledge of the history of our country & it's changes in boundry lines. Animap is a wonderful program, and the provider, Goldbug can be found at: http://www.goldbug.com/ For access to the county boundry maps online: http://www.segenealogy.com/missouri/mo_maps.htm Also, for Iron county, I have put a map that I got from the Dept of Transportation (75 cents each, I think... was not much). You can view the Iron county map here: http://www.rootsweb.com/~moiron2/ironmaps.htm You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.. and the above site has a link to download that program (free). Why do you need to know about the boundry changes from long ago? Because county boundry, and many times state boundry lines changed. For instance, did you know that in the 1700's, VA covered a vast amount of the Eastern US? Most of the (US side) Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan, Erie & Superior) were in VA (1781). At one time (1790 & before) many of the Eastern States, including VA ran as far (some maps show coast to coast) the Mississippi River? We need to have a working knowledge of maps & boundaries to be able to determine what our country boundaries were in the years we are searching for our ancestor's in. Also, you need to check the Animap/ or county map links above to know where in MO (or any state) your ancestor's were and ended up in. Iron county, MO formed in 1857 from Dent, Madison, Reynolds, St. Francois, Washington & Wayne counties. Prior to 1857, one MUST include these other counties, and then check to see where these counties formed from. We need to do our Homework! If you do your homework, you will be better able to provide help to those who have volunteered to help you locate information. NEVER let a location stop you from considering a line. One other note... here is the story (true)... I get an email... would the James Freeman Campbell in my gedcom have been in San Francisco in early 1940's? I asked my mom in law... NO Freeman never left MO and died there. I told the person I didn't think so. I think I got couple more notes... then about a year later a letter in the mail... "My dad was James Freeman Campbell b Iron County, MO".. the dates and location were correct... so, not wanting to disapoint someone looking for her fathers family... I emailed a copy of the letter to family in MO & FL... a few moments later I get a phone call...." HOW DID YOU FIND HER? We have been looking forever!." Seems James Freeman was in CA, and had married several times. He had kids by most of the wives... had I insisted, the connection would not have come about... the aunt is not an avid computer user. Moral... don't take spoken words as gospel. My mom in law also stated her Pattersons were of Cape Girardeau county... yet I found them (took 3 years to have it sink in she could be wrong about her own family too) in Stoddard county. Do your research... don't let stories, no matter who tells them, or county/state boundries stop you from busting through a brick wall.... Please, when you get an offer of help, don't say..." can't be them, not right town, county, or whatever".... check it out.. someone has gone through a lot of bother to help you... they may have more knowledge than you do about genealogy research.. check the information out before you dismiss the possibilities. Same goes for name spellings (our MO ancestors were NOT great at spelling). Thanks & happy hunting! Marge

I will have the VA maps online soon... they will be on my homepage at freepages... Marge > -----Original Message----- > From: Margie Campbell [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 9:10 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [MOIRON] Early Ancestor Locations > > > Hi everyone: > When you are researching your early (before 1900's), you really > must have a > fair knowledge of the history of our country & it's changes in boundry > lines. > > Animap is a wonderful program, and the provider, Goldbug can be found at: > http://www.goldbug.com/ > > For access to the county boundry maps online: > http://www.segenealogy.com/missouri/mo_maps.htm > > > Also, for Iron county, I have put a map that I got from the Dept of > Transportation (75 cents each, I think... was not much). You can view the > Iron county map here: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~moiron2/ironmaps.htm > > You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.. and the above site has a link to > download that program (free). > > Why do you need to know about the boundry changes from long ago? Because > county boundry, and many times state boundry lines changed. For > instance, > did you know that in the 1700's, VA covered a vast amount of the > Eastern US? > > Most of the (US side) Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan, Erie & > Superior) were in > VA (1781). At one time (1790 & before) many of the Eastern States, > including VA ran as far (some maps show coast to coast) the Mississippi > River? > > We need to have a working knowledge of maps & boundaries to be able to > determine what our country boundaries were in the years we are > searching for > our ancestor's in. > > Also, you need to check the Animap/ or county map links above to > know where > in MO (or any state) your ancestor's were and ended up in. Iron > county, MO > formed in 1857 from Dent, Madison, Reynolds, St. Francois, Washington & > Wayne counties. Prior to 1857, one MUST include these other counties, and > then check to see where these counties formed from. > > We need to do our Homework! If you do your homework, you will be better > able to provide help to those who have volunteered to help you locate > information. > > NEVER let a location stop you from considering a line. > > One other note... here is the story (true)... > > I get an email... would the James Freeman Campbell in my gedcom > have been in > San Francisco in early 1940's? I asked my mom in law... NO Freeman never > left MO and died there. I told the person I didn't think so. I think I > got couple more notes... then about a year later a letter in the > mail... "My > dad was James Freeman Campbell b Iron County, MO".. the dates and location > were correct... so, not wanting to disapoint someone looking for > her fathers > family... I emailed a copy of the letter to family in MO & FL... a few > moments later I get a phone call...." HOW DID YOU FIND HER? We have been > looking forever!." > Seems James Freeman was in CA, and had married several times. He had kids > by most of the wives... had I insisted, the connection would not have come > about... the aunt is not an avid computer user. > > Moral... don't take spoken words as gospel. My mom in law also > stated her > Pattersons were of Cape Girardeau county... yet I found them (took 3 years > to have it sink in she could be wrong about her own family too) > in Stoddard > county. > > Do your research... don't let stories, no matter who tells them, or > county/state boundries stop you from busting through a brick wall.... > > Please, when you get an offer of help, don't say..." can't be them, not > right town, county, or whatever".... check it out.. someone has > gone through > a lot of bother to help you... they may have more knowledge than you do > about genealogy research.. check the information out before you > dismiss the > possibilities. Same goes for name spellings (our MO ancestors were NOT > great at spelling). > > Thanks & happy hunting! > > Marge > > > ==== MOIRON Mailing List ==== > Iron county Missouri has a Genealogy Society web page - Link on > the Iron co site above. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy > records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >