Every so often, I hear about a new-to-me website that sounds interesting.
HistoryGeo is one of those websites. I actually first heard about HistoryGeo from American Ancestors, the subscription website for the New England Historical Genealogical Society, because they now partner so members can access and use HistoryGeo with their American Ancestors membership.
There are three different categories on History Geo – First Landowners Project, Antique Maps Collection and Place Finder + Topos, which is new.
Notice that Place Finder + Topos doesn’t appear on the home page. I’m not sure why, but I am using the Library Edition of HistoryGeo, which provides these options:
Let’s begin with Antique Maps Collection and Place Finder + Topos.
The Antique Maps Collection has a foreign collection, but its strength is in the U.S. county maps, which show landowners. There are two search options, Map names and Surnames:
I tried one of my unique surnames – Scripture – and got a couple of hits. One was Isom E. Scripture in Clinton County, Indiana, whose land is marked in Range 22:
This collection also includes some maps from some none PLSS (Township, Range and Section) states, as when I searched for Tarbox, two hits came up in Limerick, York, Maine:
Place Finder + Topos is exactly what its name describes – the search engine will locate places and give topographical details. This has some experimental features, which I played with but don’t really understand. I searched for Calais in Washington County, Maine:
22 places in the city of Calais can be viewed and the Topo feature added in the nearby towns.
Now, let’s look at the First Landowners Project, which I saved for last. Only PLSS states plus Texas are in this collection and it is mainly based on the BLM.gov GLO records.
I looked for land for Isaac Sturgell in BLM.gov and, as expected, I got hits in Barry County, Missouri:
Next, I looked at the location of this property in GLO:
Notice that Barry County is right on the Arkansas border and I could go in closer to the Township box and then enlarge to view the Range and Section where Isaac’s land was. I can even download the patent information from the government website.
How does this [free] website differ from [paid] First Landowners Project, which is based on the GLO records?
Take a look!
It not only shows me where Isaac’s land was, it also provides the names of all the other landowners, too, and shows who owned what! It’s a ready made FAN club and I recognize Calvin Prentice (3 lots south of Isaac), who later bought Isaac’s land.
HistoryGeo definitely provides additional – and very helpful – genealogically related details for researchers.
If you belong to American Ancestors, just log in to your account and search the External Databases.
Otherwise, HistoryGeo offers 3-month ($20), 6-month ($34) and 12-Month ($59) plans. If you are hunting down land records, particularly in PLSS states, HistoryGeo is definitely a BSO (bright, shiny object) that will take you down a rabbit hole. At the least, it would be worth a $20 investment for three months’ access!