need some advice

[jbbj]

Hi I posted a thread abt old railroad tracks and doing some md there and I was looking at some old maps on the outside of town where the tracks use to be and it showed 2 spots for houses am I reading that right? there right next to the tracks and showed one had 2 acres and the other 3/4 of a acre are those houses or something else built there?

 

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[RobRieman]

Uhhhhh.....I don't see the maps. Did you forget to upload them?

 

[Digger2]

They didn't show up here either..........

 

[jbbj]

My bad give me a min take a picture sorry

 

[jbbj]

Can you see it alright? Says g wilder and h.c. gray right in that area

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Yup, those look like habitations of yesteryear. Houses that are now gone. And I see township lines on there. Presuming scale is accurate, you can measure off township lines easily seen on modern topo's.

Ok once you find a gold coin there, you owe all of us a 12-pack now!

 

[jbbj]

So there should be stuff there then..this map is from 1866...and y did they build so close to the tracks?

 

[CASPER-2]

So there should be stuff there then..this map is from 1866...and y did they build so close to the tracks?

sometimes the houses were there first and they ran tracks between them - the dwellings might have been owned by the RR too

 

[jbbj]

Ic I didn't know that..think ill have to check it out...and out dated is Google maps so i can pinpoint the places?

 

[Ism]

You can overlay an image in Google earth. Historicalmapworks.com has an overlay feature that isn't perfect but easier than fiddling with Google earth.
Remember that the square homestead marker covers about 1/2 acre so to say the homestead was right next to the tracks is not necessarily true.
While the old map surveys were fairly accurate, the homestead mark can be off a little from the actual location.

 

[jbbj]

Yea thats the website I use for maps to overlay was just wondering how far out date the Google when I over lay to see if its cleared or bunch of tall stuff that I cant get into...ill deff going to do a big sweep of the places.

 

[bzbadger]

Those are more of a general area, I hunt RR tracks because I have an old one that runs on my property dating back to the 1830s and those houses aren't as close as they appear but they are residential homes so that is a good thing. I just used the old maps to find some old sea captains homes along the Chesapeake Bay that nobody had a clue was even there, one was known but there were 4 more all in a line and right under the people's noses. Good luck on the hunt but watch for the coke, the metal infused rocks from the steam engines, they make a detector go nuts.

 

[jbbj]

How far back would they be from the tracks...I went out last weekend and didn't find a thing or nothing looking like a place was there?

 

[bzbadger]

Its really hard to tell, those old maps were very generalized in placements but I usually find stuff within a couple hundred feet. Worst thing to do is have your machine in all metal mode because of the tracks and the junk/trash that fell from the trains. You will never get a reading of a house that way. I put mine on coin mode or customized to the point you know what it picks up would have to be something from a house. Those maps are worth gold. The ones for Maryland..the 1877 atlas are so hard to come by around here. I found 1 copy within 100 miles of me except for the library which has 2 copies and if u want to see it they bring it out for you, you sit on a closed room while the guy stands there watching you...you would think I was at the library of congress. Fortunately a friend got one that fell apart and he allowed me to male copies of it so now I have my own but I still use an overlay online. I like to just print out a new current map at the same size and take with me. It really really helps if you show a land owner what their land used to be and het them excited at what may be in their ground, makes it easier to ask for permission.

Get your facts first, then distort them as you please-Mark Twain

 

[Ism]

Many times there is a carpeting of nails left behind from a tear down. That's how I find the general location of the homestead in farm fields.

 

[jbbj]

besides historical map work is there any other website that does overlay of old maps? that i can try and see if its diff.