Locating old homesteads read somewhere about overlaying

[fdl]

I've been researching,on line,for old plat maps in order to locate homesteads from the earliest periods of settler occupation in Dodge & Fond du Lac counties here in Wisconsin. I did locate a 1859 plat map of Dodge county but in order to see it I need to buy a printed copy. I am able to view historic plat maps of Fond du Lac county but they only show property owners of the time & the boundaries of there land,but not where the actual buildings on there land are located. Are plat maps even the right type of maps to be looking at? Do I need to hit the local libraries & historical societies in order to find where these old buildings where located? Any other on line research that I should be looking at? I read somewhere about overlaying historic & modern maps in order to pinpoint exact locations but can't remember where I seen this info.

 

[mapper65]

I overlay maps fairly often. You really need to use Photoshop to do this.

What I do is bring the new map into Photoshop first and then create another layer and put the older map in that layer. Then you can adjust the opacity of the older map until you can can see the old structures laying on top of the new map..

Here is an example of where we found an old town in an area where there is now a baseball field. It takes awhile to size each map accordingly but eventually you will get it and everything lines up perfectly.

In this example there were two rows of houses. The first row started in center to left field and went about 1/4 mile southeast. The second row is in the outfield. I've cropped these images just to kind of protect the identity of this location but you will get the idea. It's amazing when you goto these sites and see impressions in the ground where the houses and other structures were. We had to be careful digging around the outfield area at this location but we had some really nice finds at this site. You can also see where there used to be a road that went through the trees to the right of the baseball field.

 

[Pennypacker]

That's pretty good.

 

[fdl]

I overlay maps fairly often. You really need to use Photoshop to do this.

What I do is bring the new map into Photoshop first and then create another layer and put the older map in that layer. Then you can adjust the opacity of the older map until you can can see the old structures laying on top of the new map..

Here is an example of where we found an old town in an area where there is now a baseball field. It takes awhile to size each map accordingly but eventually you will get it and everything lines up perfectly.

In this example there were two rows of houses. The first row started in center to left field and went about 1/4 mile southeast. The second row is in the outfield. I've cropped these images just to kind of protect the identity of this location but you will get the idea. It's amazing when you goto these sites and see impressions in the ground where the houses and other structures were. We had to be careful digging around the outfield area at this location but we had some really nice finds at this site. You can also see where there used to be a road that went through the trees to the right of the baseball field.

Hi Mapper....are you using old soil survey maps? There old but how about finding where structures stood back in the 1800's? What if any maps exist that would show structures from that period?

 

[mapper65]

how about finding where structures stood back in the 1800's? What if any maps exist that would show structures from that period?

I'm not using soil survey maps, I try to find the oldest aerial photograph that I can. This black & white map is an aerial photograph from 1932. A little research verified that the town located across the ball field was founded in the early 1860's. In this example that was the earliest real image that I was able to find.

It's fairly easy in most areas to find hand drawn maps with structures on them which you would either have to scan yourself or take a picture of the map and bring it in to Photoshop. Many local historical society sell them to make money for the society. I will say that getting an exact overlay between a Google Earth map and those hand drawn map may be a little difficult. In most cases like above, if you can find an early aerial photograph then more than likely the houses that were there in the 30's would have been there in the 1800's.

My brother (Hotrod53) has a great set of maps that he's picked up over the years for our area that show where houses were located back in the 1800's. Many of the roads are still there so it's not hard to locate where a house or other structure stood back then.

It's interesting to zoom in really close on one of these full resolution overlays in Photoshop because you can typically see within 15' of where everything was if not closer. If you search the web you can find some regional web sites where you can find these aerial maps. It can take you an hour or so to get everything to line up perfectly but all of the sudden it will click and you will get it right on. It takes sizing each map first to get them the same size and then you have to slightly nudge the rotation of one of the two maps. In the above example I was able to line up the "U" shaped railroad tracks at the top of the screen along with the streets of the existing town at the top left until it all came together. The existing town was there in the 1930's so that was a good reference with the modern day map being that it had so many straight streets. The old town was torn down in the late 1930's. I printed these and put them on my iPad and we took them with us to the site. It's pretty cool to walk down a street that is no longer there and look to your left and right and be able to detect in someone's front yard.

At this site Hotrod53 found an 1889 Morgan dollar, our Mom found a 1865 2 cent piece and two Indians and I found an indian and a merc. Hotrod53 found a few mercs in the front yard of some other houses not shown in the example above. You would be surprised at a location like this if you started pulling up coins like that near a baseball field. Doing an overlay and a little research explains everything.

 

[fdl]

I'm doing more research on my hometown & surrounding area where I grew up & I found plat maps from 1873,1890,1910 & newer. On these maps I see where all these 1 room schools once stood that are now farm fields. I'm actually amazed by how many of these schools there were at the time. I know my dad,who was born in 1912 attended one of these small country schools. I'll be trying to gain permission to detect these grounds so if anything interesting "pops up" I'll be posting my findings. I even found where an old brewery once stood just down the road from where I grew up-maybe I'll find a beer bottle,anyway thanks again for the responses.

Mapper.....Thanks for the info on using photoshop but to be honest I'm not that good at using it although I do use elements 8 for still photography & even then I don't get that in depth. Your idea of using old maps though is well taken as I can see pretty close to where these old structures stood.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Ok, google is your friend, google this and check out the first 3 or so sites..... old aerial photo of Wis...... I didn't take the time to see is any of those sites will give you any old, you'll have to do that....

ok, this is another site that might have some maps to help you out, just type in the county names and the state in the search box, or just the state

http://www.historicmapworks.com/

 

[fdl]

Ok, google is your friend, google this and check out the first 3 or so sites..... old aerial photo of Wis...... I didn't take the time to see is any of those sites will give you any old, you'll have to do that....

ok, this is another site that might have some maps to help you out, just type in the county names and the state in the search box, or just the state

http://www.historicmapworks.com/

Mark, besides MDing I see you read minds also. That is the website that I found last night & it shows me alot of old structures that I never knew existed. I grew up in a small town in Dodge county & know the area very well. How interesting it is to see what it looked like back in 1873. Can't wait to get back in that area & talk to some of the older folks that have knowledge of life back then. What are the chances of finding coins in farm fields where once a school stood?

On historymapworks they brake down each county into there respective township which gives good detail of where structures once where. Also there are maps from almost every decade starting in the mid to late 1800's up to the present so you can see the changes that took place-great resource.

 

[mapper65]

Mapper.....Thanks for the info on using photoshop but to be honest I'm not that good at using it although I do use elements 8 for still photography & even then I don't get that in depth. Your idea of using old maps though is well taken as I can see pretty close to where these old structures stood.

I'll give you guys a quick run down on how to do this and before long you can be a pro at it but it does take practice.

Before you start you want to resize each map the best you can so that the old map and the new map at 100% appear to be the same size on your screen. Once that is done, here is how you layer them:

1. Open the new map in Photoshop
2. Open the old map in Photoshop. You will now have two maps open at the same time.
3. On the old map, select the entire map and select copy.
4. Goto the new map and at the top of the screen select Layer and click on New Layer. Name the new layer something like "Old Map" and click OK.

You have to think of this as stacking pictures on top of each other.

5. Paste the old map on top of the new map. You will now have the new map on Layer 0 which is the bottom of the pile so to speak and the old map will be on Layer 1 which is on top of Layer 0. Don't be alarmed if you can only see the old map. That's how it should look now.
6. Over on the right size of Photoshop you will see a layers box and there will be two entries in the layer box. Those entries will be Background which is the new map on the bottom layer and Old Map which will be the old map on top of the new map.
7. Click on the Old Map layer in the layers box and you should see button for Opacity and it will be on 100%. As you adjust the opacity slider to the left towards 0% the old map will start to dim and you are going to start and see the new map coming through.

Just remember that you are still going to have to do some alignment and sizing of the two maps and if you select layer 0 you will be able to slide the new map around and resize. If you select layer 1 then you can slide the old map around without affecting the new map. This holds true with rotating the maps. Whichever map layer you have selected will be the map that you will rotate and the other will stay put.

You kind of have to keep adjusting the opacity of layer 1 (old map) up and down and then compare the alignment. Once you get the alignment of the two maps perfectly you can then play with the opacity of the old map until you have a clear view of where the old stuff is sitting on the new map.

If this sounds confusing it's really not. You can practice this with any two pictures just to see how the opacity and layers work.

Ironically my screen name has nothing to do with maps or mapping. Long story.....

 

[fdl]

Mapper....I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 & if I'm not mistaken is just one segment of Adobe Photoshop. Correct? If so would I not need the full version of Photoshop?

 

[mapper65]

Actually I have no idea. I've always used Photoshop but I've heard of Elements. Here is a link that I found explaining layers in elements.

You may have to scroll up a little once you click on this link. It does say that Elements has an opacity setting so you should be good to go.

Layers in Elements

 

[fdl]

Actually I have no idea. I've always used Photoshop but I've heard of Elements. Here is a link that I found explaining layers in elements.

You may have to scroll up a little once you click on this link. It does say that Elements has an opacity setting so you should be good to go.

Layers in Elements

Thanks....I'll give it a try using old maps I found on line.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

fdl, I have done over 200 1RSH's in the past 5 years and when you use the map works site it's best if you use the maps from the early 1900. If you use the 1800's maps you will find that some times they mark the 1RSH on the wrong side of the road, lol. Go get a county road map for each county you want to MD in and some counties like to charge you a few bucks for the map. Then go on historicalmapwork and mark out where the 1RSH's use to be on the new road map. Then you can go to a GIS site for that county and find out who owns the land and most land owners will know that their use to be a 1RSH on their land and they may give you some more info about the 1RSH.

Don't expect to find a lot of coins at the 1RSH's because most of them have been hit in the past, but sometimes you will get lucky and hit one that has not been hit too hard in the past. Out of all of the 1RSH's I have hit I have only found 3 that were virgin and you will know it when you find one them kids had a lot of coins in their pockets....

 

[fdl]

fdl, I have done over 200 1RSH's in the past 5 years and when you use the map works site it's best if you use the maps from the early 1900. If you use the 1800's maps you will find that some times they mark the 1RSH on the wrong side of the road, lol. Go get a county road map for each county you want to MD in and some counties like to charge you a few bucks for the map. Then go on historicalmapwork and mark out where the 1RSH's use to be on the new road map. Then you can go to a GIS site for that county and find out who owns the land and most land owners will know that their use to be a 1RSH on their land and they may give you some more info about the 1RSH.

Don't expect to find a lot of coins at the 1RSH's because most of them have been hit in the past, but sometimes you will get lucky and hit one that has not been hit too hard in the past. Out of all of the 1RSH's I have hit I have only found 3 that were virgin and you will know it when you find one them kids had a lot of coins in their pockets....

Mark....your right about those 1800 maps. I compared them with the early 1900 maps & a couple of 1RSH's are on the wrong side. I know this because 1 is still standing. I use a Wisc. Atlas & Gazetteer which gives you great detail. I use it for finding fields to look for Indian artifacts.Many years ago we use to stop in every county courthouse to pick up a county map but then they came out with the Atlas. I'm sure they have one for Iowa,they sell them at book stores & some gas stations.

 

[Jack Beam]

Dont know if this has been brought up yet, but, there is a tutorial about overlaying in the the Maps and Mapping forum by Labrador Bob.