Why you might have a brick wall

Geoff Rasmussen

27 Feb 2007

You might have a brick wall if your difficult research problem is similar to the following.

At a recent conference a student showed me her family group record of a family she had trouble with for many years. Her ancestor, John WILLIAMS, was born in:

Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut in 1712.

Because I too, had ancestors from the area, I knew immediately what the problem was. I quickly opened the AniMap software, plotted Woodstock on the map of Connecticut, and changed the year to 1712. Immediately, we knew why the brick wall had existed for so long.

In 1712, Woodstock was in a completely different county AND a completely different state!

Her family group record should have recorded his birth as:

Woodstock, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Knowing the correct jurisdiction for the time period is vital to successful research. AniMap is the only software for the U.S. and Canada in which you can plot the place and see the changing county boundaries throughout time.

Watch a video of AniMap’s features

Click here to view a brief introductory video of AniMap.

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Click here for more information or to purchase.

Click to view Woodstock in 1712:

Click to view Woodstock today:

Comments (4)

Larry, AniMap is owned and developed by The Gold Bug. Their website is http://www.goldbug.com.

I have used Animap 2.51 with some success, but have a couple of problems with it. One is that the dialog and display boxes in Sitefind do not allow you to see all of the data (columns) and you can’t resize it to do so. The date in the “pluck” option result box can’t be read at all, and can’t be resized.
The other problem is no one can seem to tell me who owns and who supports the product, which is why I have not upgraded to the latest and greatest.
Larry

I’ve been using AniMap for years & years and love it. But sometimes it’s too accurate – many ancestors were born in “Utah Territory” but this doesn’t compute in Temple Ready. In other areas I often insert, for example: “Kirtland, Geauga (now Lake), Ohio” to indicate the correct name from the original record. Gives others a heads up that there are different places to look and reminds me also.

In situations of that nature it’s useful to search in all bordering states in any case.

GR
Geoff Rasmussen

15 years ago

Larry, AniMap is owned and developed by The Gold Bug. Their website is http://www.goldbug.com.
LM
Larry McCUmber

15 years ago

I have used Animap 2.51 with some success, but have a couple of problems with it. One is that the dialog and display boxes in Sitefind do not allow you to see all of the data (columns) and you can’t resize it to do so. The date in the “pluck” option result box can’t be read at all, and can’t be resized.
The other problem is no one can seem to tell me who owns and who supports the product, which is why I have not upgraded to the latest and greatest.
Larry
B
Beth

18 years ago

I’ve been using AniMap for years & years and love it. But sometimes it’s too accurate – many ancestors were born in “Utah Territory” but this doesn’t compute in Temple Ready. In other areas I often insert, for example: “Kirtland, Geauga (now Lake), Ohio” to indicate the correct name from the original record. Gives others a heads up that there are different places to look and reminds me also.
J
JD

18 years ago

In situations of that nature it’s useful to search in all bordering states in any case.