Coordinates,Latitude and Longitude

[Metal Illness]

Hello friends,
Does anybody have experience and would be willing to share the process of attaching latitude and longitude coordinates to homestead sites shown on an 1875 map? I'm looking to do this with a couple local rural townships close to where I live. I don't need road/street names as I know them. I need actual coordinates that get me close to the old home steads shown on these maps, I'm sure there is a way to do this, i just don't know what that is. I really don't want to go meandering around in 500-1000 acre field looking for the debris field. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much, Metal Illness / Bill Clark

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

Have you tried locating them on Google earth?
Jim

 

[Metal Illness]

Jim, when I'm looking at these maps (from historic mapworks) there is an option to overlay, but this just does a fade of the roads and streets. Do you know if I'm missing something. i have done what you are suggesting, but that requires an exact address, which I don't have.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Maps that old won't be accurate enough to do overlays and picking GPS coords from. Old county maps that showed where the homes / schools / churches were just placing them in their approximate place on the map. IF you know the general location, your best bet is to just to take some time and wander the area. Any place a home was will have bits of glass, china, crockery, and iron scattered around the immediate location. That will give you a much better indication of where to start hunting.

 

[mikeraydj]

When you use Google Earth, the latitude and longitude are displayed at the bottom of the screen wherever your mouse pointer is pointed on the image. Take that info and put it in your GPS. The more you zoom into the image the more accurate the coordinates.

 

[Mackaydon]

Churches, schools and similar structure are usually found on small plots of ground (versus farms, etc.) Back in the day, the location of land ownership was shown on survey maps delineated in 'metes and bounds' (lengths and angles). The survey was then used as the legal description for the property. The Planning Department of your township, county, etc. should have these old deeds archived. Finding the legal description in the deed (say, for a church) will be shown on the title or tax rolls, then determining their location today will get you very close to where the structure was located.
Don....

 

[CincinnatiKid]

What Jason in Enid says x2.
I will add bricks and stones.
Peace ✌

 

[Jim in Idaho]

If you get on Google Earth....not Google Maps, you should be able to find enough landmarks (creeks, hills, etc) to enable you to pin down about where the the place was. Then you can use the GPS coordinates in Google Earth to place it on the ground. If there are no landmarks that can be distinguished, then you're going to have to do it through a lot of research...not GPS.
Jim