Many people are fascinated with maps, and historical maps, which show how earlier generations conceptualized their world and the things that were important to them, are among the most fascinating of all. However, the recent upsurge of interest in maps speaks to something important for genealogists. All family history happens somewhere. It is reasonable to think of all families as being embedded in communities, and family history is, therefore, intertwined with local history. The mapping of our communities is emerging as one of the new pivots of genealogical work.
Working with the Maps
Between 1864 and 1888, Ambrose Finson Church, a transplanted Maine cartographer, conducted large-scale topographical mapping of each of the eighteen counties of Nova Scotia. Apart from his efforts to map the roads and waterways, and the external coast, coves and inlets, Mr. Church also pinpointed the dwellings of residents, writing the first initial and surname of the principal family member in the empty spaces. In 1881, there were 74,154 dwellings in the province and, when properly digitized and geo-referenced, precise latitudes and longitudes can be calculated with the Church Maps for more or less all of those dwellings. The practical goal has been set as transcribing the names on the map, and matching them to census information.
In 2019, GANS became part of a joint venture with three other continuing heritage groups to work on these maps: the Heritage Association of Antigonish, East Hants Historical Society, and West Hants Historical Society. The partnership collected original lithographs as donations, and started work on the maps.
The job is not straight-forward though. The maps were printed as lithographs, typically in four sections, matched and glued together on a linen blacking. The lithographs range in age now between about 140 years and 170 years of age, and are all degraded in some respect, often with pieces having fallen off, or with stains from water damage, or with paper that is now cracked and broken. The physical conservation of the maps is, therefore, the first job. In our first project, we did physical conservation of five maps: Antigonish county, Cumberland county, Hants county, Halifax county, and Lunenburg county.
Digitization also has its own problems. In our initial job, we used an overhead camera for the digitization work, splicing together multiple small images to reduce focal distortion. At 600 dpi, the combined image file for one map range between 5GB and 6GB in size, requiring serious computing power for edits and digital repairs. We completed digital work on Halifax county, and did the first stage of digital work on Antigonish, Cumberland, and Hants counties, without yet having completed needed digital repairs.
Experiments with Matching the Maps
In an early experiment, we conducted experiments with matching dwelling locations on the Church maps to the 1881 census in Heatherton (Antigonish county) and New Ross (Lunenburg county). We also did experiments with the 1878 Pictou Co. Atlas in Durham (Pictou county) and the Hopkins Maps in the Old North End of Halifax.
In a later project, we geo-referenced the maps for Antigonish, Hants, and Halifax counties. Working with the much more accurate geographies we have now, the geo-referencing of these older maps required the creation of between 300 and 500 anchor points per county to micro-anchor the maps to contemporary spatial systems. We used this geo-referencing to work with portions of each of the three maps to match the dwelling points on the A. F. Church maps with census information. In the second experiment, we used a much more formal process to control and audit the matching process, and were relatively successful although pretty time-intensive.
So we have had a number of runs at this matching process, and have been able to demonstrate that it is possible to do. Other improvements in the process will need to be made on a future run at it.
Current Work
Further work is focussed now on software development, a job which has presented considerable difficulties. Progress is slow, but steady. Work has started on one of the software building blocks we call the "Data Module", which will provide for the search and retrieval of data records. We expect this software project to take a little over six months, with expected completion in the summer of 2025.
In the meantime, we have moved ahead with physical conservation of three further Church maps - Queens County, Shelburne County, and Guysborough County, all three of which have now been completed. We have also completed full digitization of the Queens County map.
This Project has a high level of difficulty and is very capital intensive, but work continues.
Repair Methods
The cost for a county map varies according to the quality of the lithograph available. If the original lithograph is very good quality, such as the map we used for Lunenburg County, the digitization is completely straightforward, and the only job is to appropriately capture the image after it has been physically "conserved". However, the average lithograph available has problems with missing pieces, or discoloration, or wrinkles, which cannot be fixed with the physical conservation process. What we can do is digitize a second map for that county and take digital pieces from the second map and digitally insert them into the parts of the first map which have problems. It should be evident that this repair method is time-consuming and expensive.
Project Costs
When we add the basic job of physical conservation, to the digitization of that product, and then add the digital repair of missing and damaged parts, the average County Map cost is running $10,000 each. Eventually, we will be able to get back to the interesting job of matching the names on the map to the census and connecting information around these family locations. Right now, though, we are moving one County at a time to complete the conservation and digitization of the County Maps for the whole province.
The federal and provincial governments have both provided some cost-sharing financial assistance to help preserve a complete set of Church Map lithographs for future generations. The expense of the digitization and subsequent digital repair, however, is our own cost. We are financing this job with donations.
