Maps can be an extremely useful tool for family history. They show all sorts of helpful things - what sort of land were our ancestor's homes built on? Were there woodlands, rivers, lakes, canals, or open pastures nearby? Was the land flat or were there steep hills? How far were they situated from the county border, from neighboring towns and parishes, and more.
Knowing the lay of the land nearby gives us information on how easy it was to visit neighboring areas. We need to know where our ancestors lived. But we also need to take a look around and see if there are other places where he or she could have interacted with others — places where he or she could have created more records. Our ancestors didn’t necessarily stay within the lines for all of their activities.
One ancestor of mine lived in the village of Fordham in Essex
and clearly had
contact with nearby Bures, in
Suffolk. It’s in another county, but is less than 4
miles distant. Maybe he sold his grain at Bures, or went to market there
or attended meetings – somehow he got to know the people there. It is where his wife was born. It is where they married. Maps make it clear how easy it was for him to travel that distance, showing that even though the two towns are in different counties there is a nice, fairly straight road between them.
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