Aerial Photos and Maps

A variety of extremely helpful maps and aerial (satellite) photos have become available on the internet of varying degrees of freeness. These can display, for very specific locations, an overall map showing location in relation to major roads and landmarks and zoomed in to show details of roads within a cemetery. The forms include topographic maps with roads identified and satellite photos with road paths and names overlayed. Resolution and detail have become quite remarkable.

This is a very dynamic and developing area, so the selection and availability of mapping tools are continually changing. Today's state-of-the-art tool may be old news tomorrow, so this page may already be obsolete by the time you are seeing it.

The following are sources that provide free maps, including aerial photos, that are particularly useful for locating rural landmarks such as cemeteries. (I am not including services like MapQuest her that are based on urban street addresses.)

These sites may be searchable by place-name or coordinates of latitude/longitude. Consequently, I am listing GNIS first which provides a mechanism for finding those coordinates from place-names.

My newest discovery (April, 2009) is Acme Mapping which is a reverse-search of sorts. One manipulates and drills down into a global map to find the coordinates for a point on that map.

As of this update (April, 2009) Google maps seems to have surpassed its older rivals. It also remains free. Those older sites may still be useful, however, and may also offer a user interface that is preferable. It does appear that at least one charges a subscription fee.

USGS - GNIS Main page . Part of the USGS website.
- GNIS Query Form .
Database to search place-names. In particular, can be used to find the county where a town is located. Can search by type of place, such as cemetery. Much more extensive information including coordinates of latitude/longitude.
Google Maps .
Acme Mapper .
My newest discovery (April, 2009) is Acme Mapping which is a reverse-search of sorts to find the coordinates of a location based on a visual search. One manipulates and drills down into a global map to find the coordinates for a point on that map. It appears to use Google maps as its underlying source, but provides a overlayment to manipulate the map and drill down to the visual point one is searching for. The coordinates are displayed in the box and they change as the map is shifted. Note that the pointer (a cross) is in the center of the screen. It is small and may be missed by first-time users. Note that the map initially launches at coordinates N 0.00000 E 0.00000. Left-click on the mouse to change the pointer to the "hand" tool to move the map. Because of the level of resolution and detail, it is possible to determine a very accurate set of coordinates based on a visual search. The resolution of the satellite photos is so clear that I was able to easily see and obtain the coordinates of a chair I left in the back yard! Also, graphics are very fast loading.
Earthpoint - Townships
Superimposes Township/Range grids (Public Land Survey) over Google maps. Also routine to convert Township, Range and section to Latitude and Longitude.
Topozone . Enter "_____ Cemetery", Lincoln (County) and "MO" in the appropriate search boxes.
TerraServer USA Topo map and Aerial Photo . Be sure to look at both "Aerial Photo" and "Topo Map" sections.
SatelliteViews.net .
(See following discussion.)

Special Notes

I have not studied this area in depth. But it does appear that the data these services use such as place-names, coordinates, etc. comes from the USGS and is the same as displayed on GNIS searches.
These services are rapidly changing, so the information here may be quickly obsoleted. For example, it does not yet include Google Maps.
The topozone maps and satellite photos are probably taken and supplied by the US government.
Available resolutions of satellite photos will vary by region.
If you are looking for cemeteries, if they are associated with or attached to a church, they will probably not be listed separately under the "cemetery" Feature-type. You will need to look-up the name with the "church" Feature-Type.

Topozone

Topozone is easier to use when looking up specific place-names. It can zoom in on the topo map. However, while Topozone's topo maps are free, they require a paid subscription to access aerial photos which are probably the same as TerraServer. (And probably given to them by the Federal government we paid for.)

Terraserver

Terraserver can search on a street, city and state; on coordinates or on a "place" which is a city or town only. I don't see anywhere to search on county or a place-name. Consequently, if you are searching rural areas that don't usually have a street address, you need coordinates to use TerraServer. Unfortunately, the USGS and similar lists show probably about 1/3 of the rural cemeteries, so obtaining coordinates may be difficult. Also, with Terraserver: 1) Coordinate boxes are reversed, 2) it is necessary to enter minus sign in front of Longitude, 3) enter coordinates to three decimal places and 4) no N or W.


   Example: Greenwood Cemetery at Clarksville, Missouri

      Latitude:   39.356_N
      Longitude:  90.910_W

      Enter as:

         Longitude      Latitude
          -90.910        39.356

SatelliteViews.net

SatelliteViews.net is my latest finding (March 2007). Unlike Topozone and TerraServer where the user must enter coordinates, a name or a street address, SatelliteViews can search from a pre-programmed list of place-names displayed in addition to geographic coordinates. The geographic coordinates search box is displayed unobtrusively at the very top right-hand of the main web page as "Lat - Long." With SatelliteViews, the user does not have the option to enter a place name or street address. Be forewarned that its list of available place-names is not complete. The list appears to have have been derived from GNIS, since it has exactly the same name and number of items for the particular Feature-Class. Also, its drill-down sequence is state, then Feature-type first (i.e. cemetery), then feature name alphabetically OR, alternately, county. That may be a little awkward if one is concentrating on just the county. Except for that minor limitation, however, I find this service significantly superior because:

Resolution, detail and clarity look much sharper, at least to me.
Maps are in color.
Zooming in appears to go one step closer-in than the others. One can almost identify individual gravestones.
The selected Feature item is marked by a red pointer. That pointer is generally very accurate and precise and makes navigation easy.
The satellite photos can be overlaid with colored-in routes and names of roads. That is extremely helpful. It is the "Hybrid" option which appears by default.
Navigation within the photo can be done with a hand-tool and movement appears very smooth and seamless.
It is easy to set hyper-links to features.

This site's place-name list seems to correspond with GNIS. Consequently, note that when looking for cemeteries associated with or attached to a church, they will NOT be included in the listing of cemeteries, so check the listing of churches. Examples include New Liberty, Corinth, Asbury and New Salem in Lincoln County, Missouri. Also, GNIS does not list all known cemeteries.

Other usage notes:

In cases where GNIS does not show coordinates, clicking on a Feature Name will bring up a blank page. In at least one case, an "Unknown" coordinates item is known to exist (2007).
Also, the Features page for a state has a drop-down menu box listing county that will display an aerial photo of the whole county with major towns shown.

Aerial photos probably come from the government, poss. USGS.

E-Mail to Neal

Main Genealogy page