Google Maps

Noteworthy enhancements to County Lines on Google Maps tool

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

I’ve just updated the new County Lines on Google Maps tool to include a few noteworthy enhancements: 1. You can now view counties across multiple states at the same time. This can be especially useful if you’re exploring an area near a state line, as shown below. The county and state name is displayed at the bottom of the map. 2. Once you’ve typed in your initial place of interest, you can then click around the map to display other counties, or type a new place if you prefer. The performance speed for doing all of this has been improved considerably. … Read more

County Lines across the pond – UK and Ireland coverage added

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

QUICK LINK TO THE MAP TOOL: County Lines on Google Maps Updated January 2020 Thanks to many of you for the great feedback on my new County Lines on Google Maps tool! Several of you commented (or lamented) at the UK and Ireland not being included. So now they are! Here are a couple of screenshots: As before, to get started just type any place name (just as you would in Google Maps) and click Go! You can then type another name, zoom in, click in another county, and so on. I hope you find these additions useful! SHORTCUT TO USE YOUR … Read more

Here’s how you can see all County Lines on Google Maps

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

QUICK LINK TO THE MAP TOOL: County Lines on Google Maps Updated January 2020 Did you ever notice that Google Maps doesn’t display ALL county boundaries? Sure enough, try it…best you can do is to get one county’s boundaries to draw at a time by searching for that county in Google Maps. Like this, where I searched for “Park County, CO”: You can only view one county’s boundaries at a time in Google Maps Well, what if you want to see ALL of the county lines in Google Maps? You can now, by using this free county mapping tool that … Read more

How you may be sabotaging your search for ancestors…and how to fix it!

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

UPDATED MARCH 2020: NEW! Let this FREE tool do the work for you as you search on Ancestry.com U.S. county boundaries have changed over 17,600 times since America was settled in colonial times. Don’t sabotage your search for ancestors by not knowing the correct county for the historical years you are researching. While searching on Ancestry, the free Historical U.S. Counties Auto-Checker extension for Google Chrome automatically checks that the county existed in the year you are searching, warns of boundary changes, and links to historical county lines on Google Maps for the place and years you are searching! Install … Read more

For Your Maximum Viewing Pleasure

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Yesterday, I released one of the most frequently requested features for the Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps tool (as a reminder, this tool lets you view on a Google Map the county boundaries as of any HISTORICAL date or year for ANY U.S. location!). The new functionality is simple but very useful: the ability to work with a much larger map in an immersive full screen experience! (Also, keep reading to learn of a couple more enhancements.) To go into fullscreen view, just hit the button in the upper right corner of the map, highlighted in redbelow. You will see a much … Read more

Free online versions of my recent Family Tree Magazine articles

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

In my last post, I mentioned my recent articles I wrote for Family Tree Magazine. There are now slightly modified free versions of the articles available on their website. The “Moving Targets” article is recast as “How to Use Old Maps to Find Missing Ancestors“, and my case study is found as “How to Use Old Maps & City Directories to Research House History“. I hope you enjoy the articles!

randymajors.org website and I featured in Family Tree Magazine

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Many thanks to Family Tree Magazine for featuring me in their May/June 2017 “5 Questions” Q&A column, part of their regular “Genealogy Insider” section. In other news: Who knew I was an insider? :) It was also great fun co-authoring an article with Sunny Jane Morton in the same issue of the magazine. Previewed on the cover as “4 Ways to Find Ancestors with Old Maps”, the 8-page feature article beginning on page 48 is called “Moving Targets” and provides genealogy research suggestions for what to do when the ancestor you are researching apparently falls off the map. The article … Read more

History buffs: With one click, see a timeline of every county, state and country the spot where you’re standing has ever been a part of.

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Just type in your address or city in the box at www.randymajors.org/maps, type a year as late as 2000, then click Go! County boundaries as of your chosen year will appear. (Sorry for those outside the United States — this only works for U.S. locations) Now, find the check box just below the map, and click it. Sit back and travel back in time through every county, state, territory and country your red marker location ( ) has been a part of! See the example below showing Durango, Colorado — part of La Plata County, Colorado today — all the … Read more

A couple of enhancements to the Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps tool — and a thank you!

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

I’ve recently made a couple of enhancements to the Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps tool that make it easier to read and see the results of the search (see screenshot below). Thank you, The Family Nexus, for your article that had very nice things to say about the tool, and also made me aware that the text was a tad small. Another enhancement is the addition of a little “maximize” button above the “Go!” button that expands the map window for much easier viewing (see the little square in the top right of the above screenshot). Finally, one last enhancement is … Read more

Take me to the tools

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Looking at search statistics on my websites, it seems the vast majority of people who visit this site are looking for a few tools I’ve created. So this post is simply to make it easy to find those tools, starting with the most popular: AncestorSearch using Google Custom Search Searches using the full power of Google, and automatically applies advanced Google search techniques so you’re much more likely to find mentions of ancestors that are otherwise buried in thousands of Google search results. Great for genealogy and also searching for living people. Linked to by over 100 professional and amateur genealogy sites, … Read more