The locals usually know the way.

A few weeks ago I was documenting the Buckeystown Methodist Church, which is behind a bed and breakfast. The owners were quite happy to show me around the B&B that they were renovating and they were quite happy that someone was documenting their cemetery. I also asked him if he knew of any other cemeteries in the area, but since he was newer to the area he didn't. He did however know the person I should ask, Nancy Bodmer, who owns Bodmer's Store. She has written a couple of books on the history of Buckeystown. However, because I took a bit too much time photographing and talking I was late for the Historical Society.

This past weekend I needed to get a couple of better photos of the Church cemetery so I stopped back by. After getting my information I decided to stop off and see if I could find out some more information about the family cemeteries that at one point were in the area. At first Nancy could only remember the Methodist church site that I had already been too, but after looking through one of her books she found a second one, the Davis Family Cemetery. I don't believe she had ever been there, but she knew the land owners and directed me in the right direction.

Because I had spent almost 30 minutes talking to Nancy, I was almost late to make it to the Historical Society on time. Because there were only supposed to be six stones in the cemetery I figured I could get the information and not be too late. When I got to the property, the owner John, asked me to come back later and was told 4 would be a good time. When I came back I was offered a ride in a cart to make it to the cemetery as it was across the fields and through a few fences.

Along the way I learned that John's father had owned the land prior to him and that now he and his wife spent half the year in Arizona and half here and that they had just gotten back. He also told me that the previous year he had had the stone fence redone. After getting to the cemetery I was disheartened to see only five stones when I thought there were supposed to be six, however, after looking at my photos I found that one stone contained two names. I was glad that John was able to take me as I never would have found the place myself.

Davis Family Cemetery

After finishing the Davis cemetery I didn't have a clear plan. So I ended up going to Jefferson to see about taking some photos of my Kessler relatives, but the church was having some sort of activity so I decided against taking photos at the time.

I've found over the last year or so of trying to find cemeteries one really does just have to keep asking around until you come across the right person. Usually that one person knows enough to find one or two places, sometimes more. 

Google Earth files of the Titus Atlas

I have created beta versions of the files I created of the Titus Atlas in Google Earth. This link will give you a number of different files, each with different features. Download them all or just the ones you're interested in. There are seven different files, each showing different information. All files are in a .kml format which you need Google Earth to view.

Almost everything in the atlas has been electronically converted. I have a file for the roads, but it is very large and still needs work. I did not do any of the waterways or railroads as they did not seem to be done very well originally.

Here are the different files and what they contain:

Businesses: This file contains all of the different types of businesses included in the atlas. There are some that have an owner name with them, unfortunately you can not search for the owner's name. I've also included kilns and quarries in this file.

Cemetery: This file contains all of the cemeteries found in the atlas. It will not include cemeteries that are with churches if it was not labeled that way. There are actually a few small family cemeteries here.

Churches: This file contains all of the churches, I have tried to spell out the type of church it is when I could. I haven't researched all of the abbreviations so some have been left abbreviated.

Features: This file is my catch all file, things I didn't know what to do with because there was only a couple of them, or I had no idea what they really were. The Washington Monument, toll houses, farms and assorted halls are all in this file.

Mills: This file contains all of the mills shown. Some of the mills have owners associated with them, however, like the businesses, the owners name's can't be searched. 

Names: Just like the Google map, this contains all of the names in the atlas. This file is not separated in to different sections like the Google map. There are also some notes, mostly to myself to check spellings and to say when there was a name with no actual mark for where their property was. A few also have 'residence' listed for when they had multiple properties in the area, those are all listed in the atlas and not by me.

Schools: A listing of all the schools in the atlas. Some schools have names and are listed that way.

These files are in beta, which means I'm still somewhat working on them. I want to find better symbols and better ways to label items. Each point will have at least the feature name and district it was in. The Names file is very large, almost 6megs, and looks very crowded. I am unable at this time to turn the labels off as doing so prevents the file from being searched.

Please let me know of any problems you find. I will fix any spelling mistakes, but I will leave any names how they are found on the map. I will however include a note suggesting the correct spelling.

Titus Atlas is fully digitized

I have finished creating an electronic version of the 1873 Titus Atlas. There are four separate sections to the map, a north, south, east, west and towns. The towns section is all of the smaller towns that had their own map. Also included in there is the separate districts in Frederick City. There are some 6300 names listed.

To search for a surname, type the name you're looking for in the box:

Google Maps search box. Note yours will probably look slightly differently.

As you can see there is a drop down of all of the people with the surname Main on the map. Remember, not everyone who owned property was listed in the atlas, also there could be a few other reasons that you can't find a name; I might have made a typo, the original surveyor made a mistake, or I was unable to fully read the name. Also remember that most of the times there is just an initial for the first name.

 You can also switch between a normal map view and a satellite view. Sometimes you can still see the original house in the general area. You might also be able to see the property lines if trees or fences were left.

Normal map view.

Satellite view.

I have no intentions of fixing anything in this map, it's far too large to be able to do that. I do however want to release Google Earth versions where I can, if possible, add first names and make corrections. Hopefully this version will work to help some people locate relatives.