The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Topographical maps aid research
This column was published Sept. 15, 1996
I've never been to Kentucky. Don't know whether I'll ever go there, but I'm fast becoming an expert on the geography of Morgan County in Kentucky.
Indeed, I had to extract my nose from U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps to write this column.
Go ahead and ask me what I was doing with my nose up Lick Fork, or why I've been browsing on Sugar Camp Branch. Truth is, I've been up Caney Creek without a paddle and I'm not doing a lot better up Greasy Creek. I'm also dividing my time along the Licking River, up Elk Fork and in Devil Hollow.
And that's just on the West Liberty Quadrangle.
I also have been wandering around Straight Creek on the Lenox Quadrangle and am so lost on the Isonville Quadrangle I don't know whether I'm on the Little Sandy River or up its Right Fork, Left Fork, Middle Fork, the Sandy Branch or Sandy Hook.
But I have confidence that one day it will all make sense and if I ever visit Morgan County, I'll know my way around like a native.
Morgan County topography is captivating because it may help solve the century-old, frustrating mystery surrounding the identities of my second great-grandparents, John Day (about 1790-1846) and Elizabeth McKenzie (1799-1861). Family tradition says both were Virginia born. Both died in Wisconsin after a significant sojourn in Morgan County.
Census records have been of limited value. Too darned many John Days in Morgan County at the same time. So I'm reduced to taxing my eyes on blurry microfilm copies of Virginia and Kentucky tax records.
It took nearly 30 hours at the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City just to copy the tax records I'm now analyzing with the help of topo graphical maps. That's where all the quadrangle business comes in, along with forks, creeks, licks, rivers, hollows and such.
Early tax records recorded the names of landowners and identified them by the watershed on which their land was located. Clues to relationships lie in which Days lived near which Days. Clues to which John Day is my ancestor may lie in tax records that show when each John Day acquired property in a location and when they sold it.
For instance, the John Day who owned land on Morgan County's Swift Camp in 1842 isn't likely my second great-grandfather, because my John left Morgan County before 1842. By the same logic, he's probably not the John F. Day who owned 150 acres on Devil Fork, or the John W. who owned 100 acres on Elk Fork in 1842. He is even less likely to be the John H. Day who lived on Greasy Creek or the one who lived on the Licking River in 1843.
Over 60,000 USGS topographic maps cover every square inch of the United States, which pretty much covers the territory. I presume Canada has its equivalent, probably in meters and kilometers, but none of my ancestors came from north of the border so I haven't poked into that.
Topographic maps come in four sizes:
7.5 minutes, 1 inch equals about 2,000 feet.
15 minutes, 1 inch equals 1 mile.
30 minutes, 1 inch equals 1.5 miles.
1/250,000s (Don't ask me what happened to the minutes on the last series. I don't know), 1 inch equals 4 miles.
In surveyors' terms, a minute equals 1/60th of a degree in latitude or longitude. The best maps for sorting out where people lived 200 years ago are the 7.5-minute topographical maps. This is because the scale is large enough that you can readily read all of the printing. Smaller scale maps present a problem, especially for old eyes, even aided by a magnifying glass.
When I finish this column, I'll go back to studying my topographical maps and marking the watersheds where at least 30 families of Days lived in Morgan County in the first half of the 19th century. Perhaps, out of 50 years of tax records and an arm full of topographical maps for Morgan County I'll find some clue that may lead to the identities of John Day and Elizabeth McKenzie.
You can purchase topographical maps from USGS Map Sales, Box 25286, Denver, Colo. 80225. Call 303-236-7477 for a price list. Or, you could do as I did. Check with a map dealer in the state for which you want topographical maps. Usually they can deliver much faster. They also may offer additional services.
For instance, I called La Belle Gallery in Louisville, Ky., and talked to a Mr. Longacre who suggested I pay a bit more for laminated maps. It was good business on his part because he does the laminations himself and made a few extra dollars. In the process, he made me a very satisfied customer. I hadn't thought of lamination, but now that I'm using the maps I can see that unlaminated paper maps would take a dickens of a beating.
Several other types of maps also are of special value for genealogists, but I'll have to deal with them another time.
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