Plotting family on maps

 

                                                                 Google map of the United States of America

In Canada, we are used to the large land masses that make up our provinces and figuring out where places, like states, are in the US can be a challenge. The other day a friend asked me what the state under Alberta was. That one I knew, having once lived in Calgary. "It's Montana," I said having gleaned that knowledge from my time working in oil industry offices in downtown Calgary. Even though the name of the state came to me automatically, I wasn't sure if it was the only state directly under Alberta.

That's where maps, like the Google map of the United States above, can come in handy. It also helps when I try to figure out how far my ancestor, Alexander Matheson and his family moved as I work on his timeline. According to one of his letters, he and his wife moved about 800 miles since they were married. They started out in Freeport near Chicago then in May 1870 moved to Iowa. Looks like good timing as the Chicago Fire of 1871 probably caused a lot of disruption in the areas of Illinois surrounding the city. Later, in early April of 1883, Alexander and his family moved to South Dakota.

Until I looked at the map, I had no idea where Iowa or the Dakotas were. In my mind, I had conflated North and South Dakota with North and South Carolina which I was familiar with having traveled through them on my way from Montreal to Florida by car. My mental map had the Dakotas parallel to the Carolinas. Now, looking at the map, I can see they are much further north. That means that the farmland and crops would have been similar to those in Illinois. As a farmer, that would have made a difference to Alexander Matheson. Looking at a map really did enhance my understanding of his story.

 

Sources:

Google maps: map data ©2023 Google, INEGI

Letter 6 from Alexander Matheson to his sister, Margaret Thomson