Google maps can be used fro so much more than just locating a place.

Pins on the maps are especially helpful for genealogists. I knew exactly how I wanted to use them. I’ve identified over 100 English locations where my ancestors have lived and I wanted to map them all out.

First, I used RootsMagic to create a list of places and then identified the list of English places. I double checked a number of villages because I wasn’t sure if someone in my direct line actually lived there or if it was a collateral family.

Next, I found a short video, How to Pin Multiple Locations in Google Maps (2024), that showed me how to set up a new map to save.

It took very little time to get going. One of the tag options is Ancestors’ Origins, which is the only one I used. Every time I tagged a place, it was saved and now, when I go to Google Maps, I can click on the 3-line bar.

It opens to this:

What does the final product look like? This is the entire U.K. map:

I can also enlarge England to better view individual pins:

On the live map, I can click each pin and land in an ancestral town.

My map isn’t unusual for those with colonial New England ancestors as those disenchanted with English life and who left for the colonies in the 1600s were more often from the southeastern portion of England.

It took me a few hours to complete this map, but I love it!