32 replies to this topic

[laura1814]

Anyone else out there using Google Earth?

I have been using it to locate all sorts of places. I love it because it's not just maps, but focuses on satellite views. So far, of course, everything I do is completely manual because TMG doesn't export to Google Earth, but it's still fun.

So far I've only entered a few places, mostly cemeteries and homesteads.

How are you using it?

[RGC]

Anyone else out there using Google Earth?
....
How are you using it?

I didn't use Google Earth, but if it had been available then I would have. Maybe I'll update. See
http://www.rgcle.com/SS/p16.htm#i305

See 41 38 55 N 85 07 40 W to compare.

Dick

[Excalibur]

Anyone else out there using Google Earth?
<snip>
How are you using it?

Well now ... Laura, how about posting something like this before it's my bedtime! HA HA HA HA I figured I'd take a look at Google Earth a little after 10 last night. So I downloaded and installed it. At 1 this morning my eyeballs wouldn't take anymore, so I finally went to bed. At 3:45 AM I was up "playing" until 4:15, then back to bed until 5:15 and I've been at it ever since. Google Earth is hm-m-m-m well, it's fun, useful for something (I just don't know what, yet), shows the roads in an "overhead land" perspective, and the church/cemetery feature is really nice. I haven't entered anything ... yet. I only wish the focus was better at 500-600 feet.

I'm not sure how, but it would seem to me that integrating with TMG would be something really nice. E.g., plugging a GPS coordinate into TMG and letting that entry populate "my" Google Earth map or finding what I want on the Google Earth map (a church cemetery) and TMG importing the information from Google Earth.

Thanks much for the push to go and check it out.

[laura1814]

Heh! Sorry to have robbed you of a good night's sleep! If it's any consolation, I too was up past 1am playing with Google Earth.

In TMG, you can use Google Maps to look up a location from the Tag Entry Screen. This gives you the same satellite data as Google Earth, but I haven't yet figured out how to create a placemark for GE automatically.

The satellite data is constantly changing and being updated, so check back periodically to see if your place high a higher resolution image.

I REALLY LIKE what you did at the URL you posted. Were you able to do any of that automatically, or did you add the grid lines in an image editor?

What I woke up thinking about at 3am was wondering if there was an easy way to put the meridians and township grids in Google Earth (or any other mapping program). I spent some time last night mapping some of those the hard way. The GNIS website will open places in Google Maps, but the GLO Land Patent Office website won't.

One really useful thing about Google Earth is the ability to share the placemarks you've created with others. These can include images, text, etc. You can even create and share an overlay, i.e., a layered image, that you put on top of the satellite image, making it easy to compare old maps. You could create an image overlay of an area showing land ownership, for example, and share it easily with others.

Ooooh, there's a 19th century property map online for St. Louis County, Missouri. I could use it to create overlays so that I can see if my ancestor really did own the land where the airport is now!

Edited by laura1814, 04 August 2006 - 07:48 AM.

[laura1814]

I've just realized that there is a layer available that appears to be the GNIS data for churches and cemeteries. It's under "community services" next to last on the list. I don't know if it includes historical places in GNIS.

[jgr]

Anyone else out there using Google Earth?... How are you using it?

I'm a volunteer for the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness folks and use it to show people where the graves are that I've photographed for them, such as these.

[laura1814]

That is really cool! Do you ever pack up the placemarks and images into a kmz file for people?

[GenerationGoneBy]

I'm a volunteer for the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness folks and use it to show people where the graves are that I've photographed for them, such as these.

Nice! I think I need to do something like that this fall for my website. Too much to do, too little life.

[BJ Heard]

Nice! I think I need to do something like that this fall for my website. Too much to do, too little life.

I live in such a rural part of California that Google Earth doesn't even show the street I live on, much less my house. I think I'll go look around for cemeteries that interest me. Hmmm, can we print or save the images we find on GE? Barbara Heard

[laura1814]

I live in such a rural part of California that Google Earth doesn't even show the street I live on, much less my house. I think I'll go look around for cemeteries that interest me. Hmmm, can we print or save the images we find on GE? Barbara Heard

Barbara, yes! You create "placemarks" and label them and it saves them in your "My Places" folder in GE. It even remembers what altitude you were viewing from!

If you're looking for cemeteries, check the layer in the lower left-hand side called "Cemeteries and Churches" (under "Community Services" near the bottom of the list in the Layers panel). It will show you all the stuff in the GNIS database. Then when you find a cemetery you want to save a placemark for, just right click on the GNIS placemark and choose "Save to My Places." Now you won't lose it! And you can share them with others, too.

[laura1814]

My house is blurry but two blocks over is a 2006 high-res image! It cuts right through my neighborhood at a funny angle. It's a new image that wasn't there last time I checked, about a month ago, and it's also "dateable" as being post-Rita. Just look at all those Blue Roofs!

[Blue Roof, n., a roof covered with bright blue tarp provided by FEMA.]


I have attached a kmz with a few placemarks showing my house and a few things around Sour Lake. There are a couple of pictures, links, text, and an image overlay of a 1906 map over the oil field. It's not very genealogy related, but it will give folks an idea of what you can do with Google Earth.

After downloading, just double click, or manually open it from within GE.

I am also working on some overlays of GNIS topographical maps in the area of one of my ancestors' homesteads. The GNIS maps have the section numbers in red so they show through ever when you have the opacity set around half. It is pretty cool!

But for now, enjoy Sour Lake!


============

All right, WHY won't it post my kmz file? It appears to upload, then the screen reloads and it's not there anymore. I've done this twice now!

Edited by laura1814, 06 August 2006 - 11:14 PM.

[laura1814]

Just to be clear, I'm having a bbs problem, not a Google Earth problem. The bbs won't let me upload my file. Help, please?

[GenieAulogy]

Anyone else out there using Google Earth?

I used it to locate land purchases, much like on Richard's site, but I only used the pushpins as name labels and left it at that. But what was really neat was seeing that there is a cemetery located on the land my ggggg-grandfather owned back in the 1820s. I'd have never known about it, had it not been for GoogleMaps. Now it's on my list of places to look up if/when I ever make it to Madison County, Alabama!

[GenerationGoneBy]

Where in Madison County? It might be a place I could go check on for you if you'd like.

[Jim Byram]

All right, WHY won't it post my kmz file? It appears to upload, then the screen reloads and it's not there anymore. I've done this twice now!

There is a limitation as to what sort of filetypes can be uploaded. Archive the .KMZ file in a .ZIP and try that.

[laura1814]

Okay, here goes. . .

Woohoo! It worked!!



Thanks, Jim!!


Folks, HERE is my kmz file (zipped) about Sour Lake! Download it and see some of the cool things you can do with Google Earth, and learn a little bit about the early days of the oil industry, too.

(Note: if you don't already have Google Earth, you can download it here: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html )

Attached Files

•  Laura_SourLake.zip   605.35K   232 downloads

[GenerationGoneBy]

Laura,
How do you set the scale for your overlay? That is so cool. It took me awhile to find it, because when I would zoom in, it would move off the screen. I can see where that would be incredibly helpful to do a district map and overlay it and then post it to your Genweb site for the county.

[GenieAulogy]

Folks, HERE is my kmz file (zipped) about Sour Lake! Download it and see some of the cool things you can do with Google Earth, and learn a little bit about the early days of the oil industry, too.

That is really neat! I love the descriptions you've put on it, too!

[laura1814]

I'm glad you both liked it!

Okay, here's a short explanation of overlays (I've had off-site questions so this isn't all directed at you, Teresa).

An overlay is a map image that you lay over the Google Earth satellite photo. You can adjust the size of your map image, and you can make minute adjustments until you get it to fit what the earth really looks like (because no map is perfectly to scale). The map I used for the Sour Lake Oil Field wasn't even really a flat picture: I found it on eBay (by accident!) and it was a photograph of the map taken at an angle, not a flat scan. But because GE allows me to adjust the corners, rotate, etc., I was able to get it to fit almost perfectly.

Now, here's the coolest part (IMHO): You can adjust the opacity of the overlay. Not only can I adjust it while I'm working with it, but you can adjust it while you're looking at it! Just right click on it (in the panel on the left) and choose "Properties." (You have access to all the same editing tools I used.) This makes it easy to compare the map to the satellite image, by making the overlay disappear and bringing it back. So it makes it easy to see where something historical (like the Sour Lake Springs Hotel, or Spindletop itself) was located, even though there's no trace of it left today.

Teresa's specific question: how do you set the scale? Well, first, you try to get your altitude view in GE to as close to what the map looks like as you can. Then you insert the overlay. Then you adjust the corners. You can adjust all corners simultaneously/proportionally by holding down the "Shift" key (just like in most graphics editors) so you can easily make the whole thing larger or smaller, or squeeze or stretch one side or corner. You can also rotate.

I think the possibilites are endless! Because you can work with any scale map, you could do something as detailed as a cemetery plot or as big as a state. You could overlay a historical map to see how the terrain has changed (is there a lake over your ancestor's homestead?). You can use historic landowner maps to show where land that someone owned is now. Or you can use township (range) maps to figure out where your ancestor's land was.

And you can write descriptions, include photographs, and SHARE!!

Edited by laura1814, 08 August 2006 - 06:52 PM.

[Excalibur]

I'll admit to being one of the people that contacted Laura privately for additional information. At the time I wasn't sure how applicable this was to Wholly Genes or, more specifically, TMG. That said, I'd someday love to see TMG and GE have some rudimentary integration.

Thank you for the update, Laura. To give a somewhat personal example of what can be done with GE -- I zoomed in to a densly wooded section in Halifax County, Virginia. This is a place where I have been to, seen, and photographed 100-120 year old structures that my ancestors lived in. Knowing what I was looking at, I spotted both of them on GE. Looking about 3/4 mile to the east, I saw what appears to be two more structures ... even deeper in the woods! I have already planned a trip this fall/early winter in an attempt to find these other two houses. Ultimately I hope to include most or all of these "findings" in TMG.