Finding colonial home sites without a map?

[TrpnBils]

[FONT=&quot]With the absence of maps older than about 1880 in a town dating back to about 1740, what advice can you guys give for finding colonial home sites without the help of the old maps?[/FONT]

 

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[MrMikeJackie]

Historicaerials.com works for me. I search the plot maps and overlay them onto the modern maps looking for any small black squares representing a house. Good luck

 

[watercolor]

With the absence of maps older than about 1880 in a town dating back to about 1740, what advice can you guys give for finding colonial home sites without the help of the old maps?

Knowing the general area (county, town, etc) would be helpful. There are many universities with extensive map & aerial photo collections that may be helpful in your research.

 

[TrpnBils]

Historicaerials.com works for me. I search the plot maps and overlay them onto the modern maps looking for any small black squares representing a house. Good luck

The HA maps go back to about 1900 here and the aerials to 1947. I use that site a lot, but I'm wondering about finding places that are old enough to have been gone by that time. I often wonder about that site's maps though because, for example, I'll look at the 1900 map, then compare to 1905, 1910, etc and everything will be EXACTLY the same for every map until about 1950 or so and then it's TOTALLY different with twice as many houses, new roads, etc. So unless there was a MASSIVE boom in housing and infrastructure here over the course of a single year or two, I think some of those maps aren't accurate.

Knowing the general area (county, town, etc) would be helpful. There are many universities with extensive map & aerial photo collections that may be helpful in your research.

Eastern panhandle of WV but I'm only a few minutes from Virginia, Maryland, and PA state lines too and go there a lot (not as much to Virginia as the other two).

 

[NHBandit]

Talk to the local deer hunters.. They know where the cellar holes are

 

[watercolor]

Check out LIB.UTEXAS.EDU and go to their "Maps" then "Topographic" and then your WV area. They have early topo's showing cultural features (roads, structures, etc) from early 1900's & earlier. When these old topos were compiled, many of the structure locations may have been there for decades.

Another really good site for modern aerials AND current USGS Topos is: Mapper.Acme.com I've used this for comparing the "old" topos (Lib.UTexas.Edu) with the new.

Good luck & happy hunting!

 

[TrpnBils]

Those are both new ones to me - I'll check into them. Thanks!

Check out LIB.UTEXAS.EDU and go to their "Maps" then "Topographic" and then your WV area. They have early topo's showing cultural features (roads, structures, etc) from early 1900's & earlier. When these old topos were compiled, many of the structure locations may have been there for decades.

Another really good site for modern aerials AND current USGS Topos is: Mapper.Acme.com I've used this for comparing the "old" topos (Lib.UTexas.Edu) with the new.

Good luck & happy hunting!

 

[TrpnBils]

What I'm still asking about though is this: What FEATURES point to a possible colonial home site being there when I'm actually out on the land looking around. If there's a cellar hole, that's pretty obvious, so what else to look for in areas that maybe are farmed or otherwise have no cellar hole?

 

[Tahts-a-dats-ago]

What I'm still asking about though is this: What FEATURES point to a possible colonial home site being there when I'm actually out on the land looking around. If there's a cellar hole, that's pretty obvious, so what else to look for in areas that maybe are farmed or otherwise have no cellar hole?

I look for flowers, fruit trees and trees that seem to have been planted for shade or a wind break. I also look for piles of stones (could be from clearing tillable soil) or bits and pieces of old bricks. Sometimes there will be shards of pottery or even glass. Talk to the old-timers who grew up in the area - they often remember stories told to them as children, or memories they have of discoveries made while gallivanting around the area. Many times the old trails and wagon roads are still partially evident - walk those and look for evidence of dwellings long gone.

 

[NHBandit]

In New England during Colonial times it was traditional to plant 3 Oak or Maple trees across the front of the homestead for good luck. Look for 3 large old trees in a row along the remains of the road.

 

[katzgar]

That is difficult but you might try infer some stuff from gmaps you know if you see a clearing with a cluster of trees in the middle or a lilac bush in the middle of a field there was probably a house there. An orchard means there was probably a house nearby another option might be to talk to a really old person in the community