A few months ago we took a look at some of Eric Stitt’s work on genealogy on his blog, and he continues to produce very useful tips. His latest post goes into detail about Overlays, which can be useful to Google Earth users of all levels.
In researching his past, overlays can be a very valuable tool as he explains here:
I have used overlay for flying routes, shipping lanes, and mostly used for plat maps. I love plat maps, it’s like my little window to the past. You can take a plat map, stretch it over the township your ancestors lived in and then use that to figure out where things from the past laid in today’s land. For instance, how many times have you see a old farm field turn into a subdivision? What I have done is place that plat map over the township and then used placemarkers to mark the Church, School, and Cemetery and then my polygons to mark the farm.
To learn more, check out Eric’s full post or read more of our posts related to overlays.
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.