Genealogy
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Genealogy sites:
Genealogy
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Genealogy sites:
Maps
Historic Map - 1909 Map of Sunning ( Taishan )
Historical maps provide a picture of the landscape that once was and serve as direct links back into the past. This 1909 map is of particular interest because my father was born in "Bak-shui " ( White Water ), Taishan in 1905 and this was so to speak, the lay of the land then. The following map overlay of the 1909 Map of Sunning was produced by my friend and colleague, Yongping Zhao.
Topographic Maps
Historic maps, especially, large scale topographic maps that were compiled 60 years ago, are quite useful in preserving original village locations, place names , boundaries – as they were, when our ancestors were there. As many of our ancestors came over 60 years ago, most contemporary maps may not contain old villages, hamlets, and other geographic features which have since disappeared or moved because of urban development and other large construction projects. These historic large scale topographic maps can provide the needed detail to locate the ancestral village - so its location can be identified on modern maps. For genealogical purposes, detailed, historic, large scale topographic maps showing village and hamlet locations with both English and Chinese names are the most useful, as shown by the above topographic map. Also, many of our elderly relatives are invaluable sources of undocumented changes for the name of villages, towns, areas, and changes in area boundaries.
Village Map - Cheer-ten village ( 车前 村 ), now known as Lung-seng village (龍 盛 村)
Village maps are great - if available. Village maps could have been compiled decades ago or they are drawn up after a visit. This map of my ancestral village, "Cheer ten" was drawn up by my nephew after my visit. When visiting your ancestral village, you will need someone else to draw the map to the village, draw the village map itself, and also to take the photographs and/or video. You will be too busy being led around to meet relatives, paying respects to your ancestors in the house in the village and at the cemetery.
If you will be using a GPS receiver to record the geographic coordinates of various sites - villages, houses, gravesites etc., you will need to turn on the GPS unit when you arrive in the locality. The GPS receiver need some time, probably, at least 15 minutes, to adjust and lock on the GPS satellites that your receiver will see in that part of the world. If the last location where you last used it was in North America - the GPS receiver will not provide readings right away.