www.itowler.com

The other day I found another feature of Google Maps.  You can Use Google Maps to find Latitude and Longitude (Lat / Long) of a point, and its pretty easy.  This is a great feature that can be used to add Lat / Long information to your gedcom file.  The software that I use (PGV) has a Google Maps module built into it, so this feature is not as important to me, but other may find it interesting.

Recently more DNA Genealogy results have come in, and this has caused me to re-examine my lineage.  Thanks to the work that I and a few cousins have done, I have been able to trace my linage back 9 generations.  Each of these generations has a document or more that helps substantiate the link (again thanks to some cousins for their work).

Its Valentine's Day weekend (is there such a thing??).  I Figured that I would do a little bit on my ancestor named Valentine Cox (or sometimes seen as Coxe).  Valentine Cox is my 6x Great Grandfather.  Valentine is the son of Henry Cox, and husband to Nancy Ann Dawson, and father to Judith Cox.  My connection to Valentine is as follows:

There are a few documents that are KEY to research in some families, and the Toler/Towler family has a few "Must See" documents.  One of those documents is Winston Dalton's Register.  Mr. Dalton's register is an old register of births, deaths and marriages which seem to have occurred, for the most part at least, in the northern portion of Pittsylvania and the southern part of Bedford counties, Virginia.

The Baskin and Forster Atlas was packed with interesting items for me.  One of the maps that I found surprised me.  It was a detailed map for the city of Hope, Bartholomew County, Indiana in 1870.  I have several members of my line that lived in the town at the time, so I was curious about the map.  Upon closer inspection it turns out that the map has some pretty significant information for me.

The surnames that are linked to the City of Hope are maternal lines, and center on the Spach/Spaugh and Arbuckle surnames.  The map in particular is significant to the Spach/Spaugh name. 

As I mentioned in my last post I purchased a digital copy of the 1876 Baskin and Forster Indiana State Atlas.  The atlas covers Indiana, and has maps of the counties and Cities that were in the state at the time.  In addition to the maps that are specific to the state, there are some maps that are of general interest.  These general interest maps include a world map, a railroad map etc.

I have always found maps interesting, and since I started working on my genealogy, they have become an important tool.  One of the maps that I have come across in my research is the 1876 Indiana State atlas.  It is a great atlas, but has become hard to find, and if you can find it, it is an expensive book to purchase.  The book was about 290 pages long, and it is bound in half leather black cloth covered boards.  The words "Illustrated Historical Atlas Of The State Of In

Last week I talked about VINE, a research tool for those doing research in Indiana. In the post I mentioned that I had found several Towler Obituaries and a few Hoffman’s. Using the information that I gathered in VINE, I sent away for copies of each of the obituaries. One of the Obituaries that I sent for was the Obit of Mrs. Mary Hoffman.

About a week ago, I was surfing the Internet, looking at some Indiana Genealogy sites. Indiana, along with Kentucky, and Virginia are areas that I have done the most research in. Looking at my family tree, my previous 4-5 generations all have solid roots in Indiana, on both my Mothers side and my Fathers side. While surfing I somehow managed to find my way to the Indiana State Library webpage. I have been to the site before, and I have had a little bit of success, but not a tremendous amount. I generally have a little better luck at the Individual County or City Library pages. This time while making my way through the Indiana State Library page, I found a new resource named VINE, that should be helpful. VINE stands for Vital Information Exchange, and appears that the intent is to make a single point to search for multiple types of records. The VINE project overview page states: