new mapping trick?

[captain Jack]

I thought of a new idea this evening and it may prove to be useful! SOmeone else may have already done this but it's new to me so I thought I'd post it.
I found some civil war maps of the surrounding counties and then went to google earth and zoomed in until I could see the outline of a specific county I had a CW map for. then saved the google earth map and moved both into photoshop.
Then I made both county outlines about the same size with the "transform" tool, (with the CW map on top) and made the CW map transparent enough to see both at once.
This allows me to read the old map and see very closely where it could be now. Helps find exact routes to them too since most of the roads available now were not there back then. I just tried it tonight and it looks like it'll work good.

But then again communism was a good idea in theory too....time will tell I guess.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[SwampHunter]

I do the same thing and it does work to a point. What you have to realize is that most maps were not that great back then. On a lot of maps the distances were off quite a bit. I finally found some maps of areas that I was looking for. Unfortunately if you do overlay them like you described, they are WAY off. I try to match up the rivers, streams, lakes and such first. If that doesn't work I use a topo map that was close to the time period and then try to match up some of the roads. More often than not they are off quite a bit.
On the bright side it still gives you a better idea of the general vacinity.

I still haven't forgot about you. I had to go to town tonight and it put a damper on what I a putting together for you. I will get it sent sometime tonight. Hopefully within the next hour.

 

[Timberwolf]

Captain Jack,

I have Photoshop, but I can't find a "Transform" function anywhere.
I think what I want to do is to make one of the maps transparent, but I can't figure out how to do that. Any suggestions?
Thanks,

Timberwolf