www.google.com
I've got another project that I just started for our German Genealogy Interest Group (GIG). I created a map on Google Maps, where the members can add their surnames and locations where they lived. We can then see where everyone came from and their family surnames. This will be used during our September virtual meeting to start a conversation about common surnames and locations to see if any of the GIG members can provide information on the successes they have had in researching those areas. This is an example of how you can use maps to encourage involvement in family history. The map can be found at https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=16skA3lFmnhauHzUNUyoB19l55tz47G5f&usp=sharing.
So far it only has my German ancestors, but I am hoping that the GIG members will begin adding information soon. All of the information is added through a Google Sheet which is connected to the Google Map project.
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@Miles A Meyer This is great! From what I am understanding, you took the concept that you used for your hometown historical society and applied it to this concept of mapping out surnames with others to connect your research. Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this idea.
I am going to put the link of your other post in here so we can reference the process that you did. I think the @Germany Genealogy Research will be interested in this too. https://community.familysearch.org/s/feed/0D54V00002eqyxZSAQ
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Oooh, I wonder what would happen if you then opened it up to other GIGs to enter theirs as well? (I'm guessing this is for the Second Life GIG?) That would be interesting....
What if you know they came from Germany but you haven't figured out quite where in Germany they are from yet?
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This is a GIG for our county genealogy society (Indian River Genealogical Society). They have other GIGs as well including Scottish, Danish, Scandinavian, etc. I had 72 direct ancestors from Germany in my 7 generation fan chart. Some had towns. Others had German states. and a few just had Germany. Those get located in the center of the area that was indicated.
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How do we add out surnames and locations.
I've looked some but have not figured it out yet?
I was able to go to the map page but see no way to edit it?
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The map isn't editable. There is a Google Sheet that is available to the German GIG members for them to add their information. As they add information I reset the map to show the new data. The first meeting of the season for the German GIG will be next month and this will be part of the discussion at that meeting.
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How do I join the group. My wife and I have many German lines, some we know where from, others not. TYVM!
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Where can I learn more about this GIG group? I’m researching my German lines and have loads of names, dates, and locations that have been sourced. I’d love to contribute and see which common ancestors might be out there.
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It is a subgroup of our local Indian River Genealogical Society in Vero Beach, Florida (https://irgs.org/). We have several GIGs in our Society including DNA, Irish, Writing, Brick Wall, and RootsMagic which meet monthly to discuss their topics.
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@John Albertini or @tkennedy706 tkennedy706
Perhaps one of you could get one started for people in our FamilySearch German community - Germany Genealogy Research?
(I bet @Miles A Meyer would be happy to teach you how... 😀)
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It's pretty easy. I can help show them how to do it.
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Now that I think about it, this would be a great idea for any of our research groups! So I just shared it with the Community Group Leaders....
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That's a great idea! There are also surname distribution maps available that show how many people with a specific surname lived in different areas of, for example, Germany. Two good ones for Germany are http://geogen.stoepel.net/ and https://www.kartezumnamen.eu/en/ Surname distribution maps like those can help you get a really good idea of how common or uncommon a surname is and a general idea of where people with that surname are likely to be from.
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@Miles A Meyer
I think what you did is such a great way to help visualize your heritage. You mentioned to @Janell Vasquez that you would be willing to help teach her how to do a similar project for the German Genealogy Group, so my question what would the chances be of having you do a Microsoft Teams meeting for the Community Group Leaders Team? Also, if one does not belong to your historical society would they need to join the society to see the September Virtual Meeting? Lastly, what is a GIG Group?
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Yes, I use those sites to see where specific surnames are concentrated. However, the project I did is used to see if there are concentrations or locations where people in the German GIG are located. If we can see several people from the same region, they can work together to find records from those areas more effectively.
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I would be willing to have a Teams meeting. You can email me at milesmeyer@gmail.com to set up a time. A GIG is a Genealogy Interest Group. We have several Interest Groups in the local genealogical society where people get together to discuss common interests. Some are based on country of origin like German, Irish, and Danish GIGs, but others like the RootsMagic GIG, Writing GIG, DNA GIG, and Brickwall GIG focus on other topics. We open our meetings to the public but only the society members have access to the archived events and handout materials.
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I would love to learn how to do this. What's the best way to contact on here?
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This is a brilliant idea for any genealogical society or group to put together, especially for their membership to see who else might be researching common surnames.
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I love that idea.
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For those of you who were interested in this, we met yesterday and there is a recording of the process - thanks Miles! You can see it in this post: https://community.familysearch.org/s/feed/0D54V00004yvdruSAA
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