General Chat

I was just interested to see what people would like to get out of maps from a genealogical standpoint. I'm having to think up a GIS project for my masters degree next year and as its an archaeology based degree I felt maybe I could do something involving mapping a 19th century town or village.

What a very interesting thread. Not sure if i understand all of it, I have to admit. But I do gather the gist of it. Am i right in thinking that the poorer the area, the more chance of malnutrition and disease, especially in the more populated cities and towns. I find it hard to believe that in populated areas where there were a lot of industries, Ie:- work to be found, pennies to be earned for food that they still suffered more than those that lived in remote areas. I stand to be corrected. Jenny

Its all so difficult to explain! It works using layers and by layering your data you can turn things on and off. You can also attach databases so that you can attribute colours to different things.

That's what I suspected Sarah! I suppose we would have to wait for some web site to set up a facility like that so that we could input the demographic data as individuals.

GIS packages cost hundreds of pounds (even student licences to use these packages can cost about £100!) The technology isn't really available to the public, although we do get to use output from it! Has anyone ever been to a shopping centre where they have interactive map terminals? They use GIS.

Sounds like an interesting idea Sarah. As I perceive it the problem would be first of all obtaining the maps. I don't know if people are aware, but you can view the late Victorian ordnance survey online at www.old-maps (.co.uk) But then how would you get the other data to overlay on the map? And of course the further you go back in time the more sketchy and inaccurate in terms of scale etc maps become. Where can you get this sort of software, is it available to the public?

I don't know how many people here have come across the term GIS (Geographic Information Systems) before. Basically GIS is a set of computer programmes for collecting, storing, transforming and displaying spatial data for a particular purpose. Its used by councils, the police, shopping centres etc to map out areas and overlay maps to better understand something. For example the police might start off with a map of a particular area and then overlay a plan of where all burglaries in the last 6 months have taken place and then overlay another plan of where people have been caught using drugs in the last 6 months to see if theres any correlation between burglaries and drug use. Anyway, getting back to the point! I was wondering if people felt that more could be done about mapping areas in the recent past, e.g. 19th century to show if specific areas were dominated by specific trades, if mortality rates were higher in some streets than others, and to show whether people were more likely to stay at the same address between census returns in some areas than others. Can anyone think of any interesting comparisons they would like to make using maps?

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