Map research question

[fongu]

I was at the library in another county doing some research and was going thru this list of cemeteries in this county. I found quite a few abandoned private family cemeteries and some church cemeteries where the church has closed due to lack of new members. Two of these churches were founded in the early 1850's and then moved 2-4 miles to new locations for expansion. These expansions were brought about by needing room for a church cemetery and the donation of land by members of the church or community. The Sanborn maps only started in the late 1890's in this area and were mostly in the cities and not the county. The county in question was formed by taking land from previous counties, which were larger. This was caused by the people using horses or buggies or wagons to travel and they wanted smaller counties to be able to go to the county seat and back home in a days time.
I am at a loss to find the proper maps to try and find these locations where the churches were first founded and are probably farm land or timber land at this time and try and get permission from the landowners to metal detect these properties. The county map at the library was made in 1896 and I can't find these previous church locations on it. Adding to this confusion, one of the churches changed their name from the original church name. Any advice would be appreciatted. Thanks in advance.

 

[widebody]

[size=large]my guess is that when becoming a state all land is going to be tracked for tax purposes. the state needs to know who is exempt and who 's not. same for counties. research is not easy nor cheap at times. do not think all organizations are honest. i got my best map from the water district. they had to lay the pipe. depends on how old your area is. think utilities. they all needed maps and still need to know where they put what. take an office worker to lunch.

HH [/size]

 

[MrGee]

Locate the local historical society in the county in question and sit down and talk to them. They are always very friendly and they are there to talk to people like you about the local history. Churches were important parts of the community in times past and should be well documented in the history. Most of those people are amazingly knowledgeable and have a surprising amount of information at their fingertips. Good luck.

MrGee

 

[fongu]

Thanks.

 

[widebody]

[size=large]library titles can give clues as to how helpful they're going to be. look for regional libraries and those of some universities. for example Portland State University is the regional re-pository for the U.S. gov't. that means massive amounts of info and access to more. trade off may be
you have to travel to get to one. i have to go 50 miles to get to PSU. one source can also be the local organization of indian affairs. often not even thought of but has lots of history. one might even gain permission to hunt ghost towns on tribal land. ya can always ask.

HH [/size]

 

[Bum Luck]

Many of us, me included, won't hunt cemeteries.

 

[fongu]

I don't hunt cemeteries either, Bum Luck. The two places I am interested in are where the church was first founded and then moved to another location to have a cemetery. Remember that a majority of people were buried on their home-sites back then in private cemeteries. I am interested in where the original church buildings were located and the privy areas. These sites contain some old coins and it was a common thing to throw old bottles and other trash in the privy in those days. I would never desecrate a cemetery for any reason, much less a few old coins or bottles. Hope this clears it up for everybody.