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You wouldn’t think of heading off somewhere new without first checking a good up-to-date map, whether printed or online.
The same is true for your genealogy pursuit. You just have to replace “up-to-date map” with “properly historic map.”
Good older maps can tell you a lot about your ancestors – the nation or province they lived in, the cities and rivers that figured into their lives, the borders that defined them, the languages they knew and the religions they practiced.
Even here in relatively placid Wyoming Valley, a map from times past can explain a lot of the “whys” of our ancestors’ lives.
A long time ago I found myself wondering why a local ancestor who’d been a baggage supervisor for the Lehigh Valley Railroad in Wilkes-Barre (a huge carrier) suddenly – and briefly – turned up in a similar capacity on the West Side. Had he been demoted to lesser responsibility from the rail hub the city was in those days? I’d never thought of the West Side as major railroad country.
Looking at a turn-of-the-century map, I discovered to my surprise that a now largely empty part of Kingston once had a rail yard with 14 tracks paralleling Schuyler Avenue (known in those days as Walnut Avenue). I’d always known there’d been freight and passenger stations there, but until I looked at the map I’d had no idea of the huge volume of rail traffic in that area a century and more ago.
The map and presence of the trackage explained another mystery to me: why the Lackawanna Railroad had a roundhouse along what is now Page Avenue. A roundhouse was a building in which steam engines were housed and serviced, with a turntable to move the engines around. There was another sign of big-time rail activity. Rail companies often shared tracks and facilities.
Demotion? Not likely! If anything, it might have been a step up for the old fellow.
Antique maps for many Wyoming Valley towns are as close as your computer. Search for “Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Pennsylvania” and click on the entry for the Penn State University Library website. There you’ll find highly detailed maps for many Luzerne County communities from the 1880s to the 1920s.
The Sanborn organization made these maps for insurance companies that needed to know fire risks before writing policies for homes and businesses. That’s why the maps give details on electrical systems, number of floors, security and windows for the buildings and the type of business conducted there, as well as nearby sources of water. Of course you can find Sanborn maps for communities elsewhere in America.
Records Update: Luzerne County administration has looked at a building in Hanover Township as a possible new records storage facility, The Times Leader recently reported. Records are now stored in a former produce warehouse on East Union Street in Wilkes-Barre. That facility has been criticized for temperature extremes, lack of security and fire hazards. The new building, at 85 Young St., is a former Postal Service facility. The building could also serve as a county morgue.
Genealogy Society News: The Northeast Pennsylvania Genealogical Society is looking to raise $5,000 for this year’s Digital Collection Fund. In recent years the group has digitized and made available many thousands of local church and other records that had previously been difficult for researchers to access. Contributions via PayPal can be made on the society’s website www.nepgs.com by using the “donate” tab.