township & range

Bring your maps to life with Dynamic Maps!

March 19, 2023 by Randy Majors

A much-requested map feature is now available — Dynamic Maps. By “Dynamic Maps” we mean maps that show you the answer you’re looking for simply by hovering your mouse over the map! Of course, you can still click the map as before and it will drop a blue dot at the location you clicked and display the full information about the location in the blue bar above the map. Pro Tips This feature is very useful if you’re using the Selection Tools or Drawing Tools to select ZIP Codes, counties, etc as it will show you what you’re about to … Read more

Update: Historical Counties and Drawing Tools

March 24, 2024 by Randy Majors

Screenshot showing both historical county labels and civil township labels

First, the popular Historical U.S. Counties Auto-Checker chrome extension has been updated to work with the latest version of Ancestry’s website. Also, now when you use the Historical U.S. Counties map tool, you can explore the historical counties for any historical date in the context of civil townships. As you likely know, civil townships are often used in a lot of historical records from census to land ownership and more. Now, when you turn on labels for historical counties by checking the “Show historical county labels” box in the lower left corner of the map, if you also check the … Read more

Most Requested Capability Now Available: Draw & measure on the map

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

Study Area Map draw on the map example - cropped

Based on the survey last month completed by over 100 users, the most requested capability was to be able to draw on the map and save those drawings to your account. Well, now you can! In fact, you can draw points, lines and shapes on the map, save the drawings, and add multiple drawings onto the same map. And, as a bonus, length and area is automatically measured and displayed as you draw! Once you add drawings to your map, plus any other map layers you want to show, you can save the finished map to your account, and share … Read more

New powerful ways to select features on the map tools!

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

Now you can use the Selection Tools button to select map features on any map tool! You can select the map features using any points, lines or shapes that you draw, or select map features by specifying a radius around any shape you draw. The map features that get selected depend on which tool you are using: counties, city limits, civil townships, ZIP Codes, Section Township Range, historical U.S. counties, time zones, area codes or the custom map tools. Here’s how it works: Using the County Lines map tool as an example, click the Selection Tools button on the left … Read more

Have it Your Way: Section Township and Range

November 22, 2022 by Randy Majors

Section Township and Range Maps by County example

If you’ve used the Section Township Range map tool, you probably already know that you can search by address or place using the Search places box above the map, or you can find a particular parcel using the Find parcel tool at the bottom of the map: Now there are additional ways to get to the Section Township Range map that you want to see. First, you can go Section Township Range Maps by State or Individual County Maps of Section Township and Range found in the Reference Maps section, such as this map of Sarpy County, Nebraska: Once on … Read more

Create a link to a map of any Section, Township and Range, including your CURRENT location

May 17, 2024 by Randy Majors

Maps of individual Townships in the Section Township Range PLSS

If you have a website that makes use of legal land descriptions, now you can quickly create a link to a map centered on any Section, Township and Range. Or if you are traveling looking at large land parcels, you can see what Township, Range and Section you are currently* in. This is an advanced capability of the Section Township Range on Google Maps tool. To zoom into a particular Section, Township and Range, create a link such as this: https://www.randymajors.org/township-range-on-google-maps?state=CO&sec=15&t=4&td=N&r=69&rd=W Clicking this link takes you to this map: TIP: copy/paste the link above and customize to suit your needs … Read more

So…what is randymajors.org Research Hub anyway?

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

“So what is your website all about?” I increasingly get asked some form of this question about randymajors.org Research Hub. A BRIEF BACKSTORY: Back in 2006-2010, the randymajors.org website was a fairly small collection of blog posts about family history plus some of my photography. Then, in 2011 I launched the AncestorSearch on Google Search and Historical U.S. Counties on Google Maps tools primarily aimed at genealogy and historical research. FAST FORWARD TO 2018: I decided to broaden the appeal of the mapping and search tools to a more general audience by launching the present-day County Lines on Google Maps tool. I continued to … Read more

Now you can get access to an AD-FREE version of AncestorSearch on Google Search too!

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Back in December, I announced a way to get access to all of the map tools AD-FREE and FULL-SCREEN. I’m pleased to announce an AD-FREE option is now available for AncestorSearch on Google Search as well! The functionality is identical, but with no ads: The ad-free versions of the map and search tools are formatted to work equally well on your smartphone or tablet too! All the details are on this page: NEW: Enjoy ALL of the map and search tools AD-FREE and FULL-SCREEN! GOOD NEWS: If you have already signed up for access to the ad-free map tools, you now … Read more

County info added to Section Township Range on Google Maps tool, plus a tip for historical county research

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

Sometimes it’s hard to determine where you are when using Section, Township and Range Maps. So to help provide more geographic context when searching for a land parcel, county information has now been added to the Section Township Range on Google Maps tool. For example, let’s do the following “Find parcel” at the bottom of the map: That will show the following map, now including the county name on top as well as dashed gray lines for the county boundaries, like this: Note the county name shown in the upper right (highlighted with the red box above), and the county line … Read more

Big upgrade to the Section Township and Range tool: more detail, more flexibility, new labels

January 28, 2021 by Randy Majors

After the infrastructure upgrade I mentioned in the last post, the increased speed of the maps enabled me to add much more detail to the very very large map layers (over 12 Gigabytes!) that comprise the Public Land Survey System (PLSS), also known as Section, Township and Range. When you open the tool, you will now be presented with a Google Map overlaid with township and range lines, including labels, such as this: Note the Township and Range labels above. For example, the box where the red dot is has a label “14N 67W” which is shorthand for “Township 14 … Read more