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Resources Ease Problems Of Changing Boundaries

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By SHARON TATE MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: June 22, 2008

Our ancestors probably didn't care about political land boundaries as they migrated across and populated the American frontier. As their storytellers, we often are thwarted by those very boundaries and their frequent changes.

For example, in 1832, Georgia distributed the last of the land taken from the Cherokee Indians, who later were removed to Oklahoma. Several million acres were formed into one county, named Cherokee for its former inhabitants.

Almost immediately that huge county was divided into 10 smaller counties. One of them originally was named Cass. The boundaries given to Cass expanded in 1834 to include parts of adjoining Murray County.

In 1852 and again in 1854, parts of Paulding County were brought into Cass County. In 1856, legislators went back to the original Cherokee County and took more land to add to Cass.

On the other hand, in 1843, 1845 and 1852, parts of Cass were taken and added to Floyd County. In 1850, 1852, 1854 and 1856, parts of Cass were added to Gordon County.

You easily can get lost in such legislative transactions that moved land around for various political reasons. It is critical to study them, however; otherwise you may be looking in the wrong county for records of your ancestors.

Residents Of 3 Counties

My ancestors were greatly affected by these actions of Georgia's Legislature. They lived in the original Cass County, then in Floyd and then in Gordon - without ever moving from their land. So depending on the year, I will find records of these families in all three counties.

To compound the situation, the name of Cass County was changed to Bartow in 1861, when the Civil War broke out. The county's good Southerners did not want to live in an area named after Lewis Cass - a Yankee - so they sought a more acceptable namesake in Francis Bartow.

If all this seems a bit overwhelming, relax. There are a few easy ways to get through this process.

It's likely that historical or genealogical societies have traced the history of county names and boundaries in their regions. The local library usually has contact information for a county genealogical society, or you can go to www.daddezio.com/society/, the site of "Society Hill," which has state-sorted listings for most societies.

Another resource is the USGenWeb Project home page, usgenweb.org/about/index .shtml. By clicking on the state of interest, you can learn much about the history and creation of counties.

I chose Arkansas and got connected to www.argen web.net/arcounty.htm, where I found a chart on the formation of the state's counties, including the dates and the parent counties.

Information about a limited number of states is available through the "Atlas Historical County Boundaries" at the Newberry Library (Chicago) site at www.newberry .org/ahcbp/state_index.html.

When you select a state, you will first see a map with the county boundaries as they were when the state was formed. On the right side of the screen, you can change the date to the time period of interest, and the county lines will change as you watch.

Yet another resource is "Ancestry's Redbook," edited by Alice Eichholz, which gives maps and tables on all 50 state formations along with county changes.

Genealogists also can be challenged when they are trying to find towns and communities that have disappeared.

Name changes may have occurred or the population shifted and everyone moved elsewhere.

Gazetteers - geographical dictionaries - are very helpful in finding such places. You also can check Gilbert S. Bahn's "American Place Names of Long Ago, A Republication of the Index to Cram's Unrivaled Atlas of the World."

This book has more than 100,000 place names of counties, cities, towns, villages and post offices in the United States along with populations from the 1890 census.

The "Redbook" and Bahn's book are widely available on the Internet and through local bookstores. Most public libraries also have them.

For those who prefer the computer to books, a wonderful piece of software to have is Animap.

The 3.0 version of this software was released in March. It displays more than 2,300 maps that show changing county boundaries for each of the contiguous 48 states from 1776 to present day.

Watch Areas Grow, Change

What's fun about the software is that it can be set in motion so you can watch an area grow and change. You can stop the motion at any point in time.

Another feature is Site-Finder with more than 1 million U.S. locations. It includes cities and towns, townships, railroad stations, trading posts, farms and ranches, schools, ghost towns, mining camps and more than 100,000 cemeteries.

Many of the locations shown on the maps include those that no longer exist or whose names have changed. The Gold Bug publishes Animap. You can order it for $79 from the company at www.goldbug.com/Ani Map.html. I found it for $69 through Legacy Family Tree Store (legacynews.typepad .com/legacy_news/2008/03/animap-30-softw.html) and Ohana Software (www.ohana software.com/?cl=buy& catid=32), so you might want to check around.

Mac users need Windows for this software.

If your budget won't cover any of these purchases, free resources are available. Place name information can be found on the Internet, depending on the area you're researching.

Type your state name plus "place names" or "gazetteer" in a search engine and see what you turn up.

I ran several state names through this system and got amazing books and Web sites.

This is how I found Kenneth K. Krakow's "Georgia Place Names" (www.ken krakow.com/gpn/georgia _place-names.htm), which has solved several mysteries of lost places.

Shifting boundaries may be high on a genealogist's list of frustrations. But patience and thorough searching in books and on the Internet can produce results well-worth the time and effort.

Write to Sharon Tate Moody in care of The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa FL 33606; or stmoody0720@mac.com.

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