Find a genealogical gold mine in Google Maps

Once or twice a month I teach a class on Google for Genealogy. At thebeginning of each section, I always ask the class members about theirprevious experience with various Google features including Google Maps,Google Books, Google News, Blogs and many other apps and features. Inmany cases, my questions draw a complete blank. No one in the class hasever tried or even knew about the feature or function. This isinteresting because almost every person in every class uses Google's searchfunction. Google is the modern Swiss Army Knife of the online world. Ifsome of the features aren't pointed out to you, you simply use the mostpopular ones and ignore the rest.

Google Maps is goldmine forgenealogists. It is a given fact that almost all genealogical researchis tied to geographic locations. For the most part, records were and arekept in the geographic area where the events occurred. During my recentattempts to find the name my great-grandfather carved into a rock innorthern Arizona, I searched Google Maps, Google Earth and lot of othermaps to find the location. Yesterday, I was working with a patron at theMesa Regional Family History Center and her mother's family came fromLittle Falls, Morrison County, Minnesota. In looking on Google, I findthat there is a Wikipediaarticle on Little Falls and that the population was 7,719 in the 2000U.S. Census. It was the boyhood home of Charles Lindbergh, the aviator.Since our meeting yesterday was quite short and she is just starting hergenealogical research, I am pretty sure she doesn't yet know all ofthese facts.
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Find a genealogical gold mine in Google Maps

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