Mapping my Ancestor's ENTIRE Life with Google My Maps | Roam Your Roots

A genealogy mapping project turns scattered census entries and addresses into a single, visual timeline of third great-grandmother Sarah Booth’s life—highlighting how close “different” places can be and how much uncertainty remains about where she actually lived. Born in Tennessee in 1828 and dying in St. Louis in 1917, Booth’s records point to repeated moves across multiple states and counties. By pinning each known location into a fresh Google My Maps workspace (“sarahbooth life”), the project aims to make those moves easier to track, spot patterns, and identify where additional records might be hiding.

The mapping begins with Booth’s early life in Tennessee. Her birth state is known, but the exact birthplace isn’t; instead, the 1830 census places her father in Perry County, Tennessee. To ground that county in the right historical geography, the mapper uses a Library of Congress Tennessee map dated 1832 to approximate Perry County’s boundaries as they likely existed in 1830—so later searches for land or local records won’t accidentally target the wrong jurisdiction.

Next comes the 1840 census, which is treated as evidence that Booth’s family lived in Jackson County, Tennessee. To visualize that, the mapper pulls a Library of Congress map dated 1836 and attempts to plot Jackson County’s relevant towns. The process is imperfect—some town names are hard to locate—yet it establishes a working “where” for Booth’s childhood and for later research.

The project then pivots to Illinois, where Booth’s marriage and subsequent census listings suggest rapid relocation. In 1848, Booth is married in Jackson County, Illinois, and by 1850 she and her husband are listed in Liberty, Randolph County, Illinois. The mapper notes that Liberty no longer exists as a town name and treats it as corresponding to today’s Rockwood, Illinois. A key insight emerges when the map is zoomed in: Jackson County and Randolph County appear to meet near Rockwood/Liberty, meaning Booth may have “moved” across a county line rather than across the state. That raises practical questions about boundary changes between 1848 and 1854 and whether township or county lines shifted over time.

By 1860, Booth is in Washington County, Missouri, living in a township identified as Concord Township (with later references to Bellevue Township). The mapper corrects a common assumption: Bellevue Township did not necessarily cover Bellevue, Missouri itself; instead, it appears centered around Caledonia, with Bellevue located in a different, unnamed township area. In 1880, Booth is listed in Iron Mountain in St. Francois County and works as a hotel keeper—another concrete anchor point added to the map. In 1900, she is living in Bismarck with her son Douglas, and in the final census she is a boarder at 2 to 8 North Taylor Avenue in St. Louis.

The mapping ends with her death certificate address (5 667 Von Verson Street, later associated with Enright Avenue) and her burial at Belfontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. The result is less a finished answer than a structured set of hypotheses: the map clarifies the likely travel path, exposes mismatches between township assumptions and census labels, and surfaces new questions—such as where exactly within each county she lived and how family events (including her mother’s remarriage in 1837 in Gallatin County) fit into the timeline.