# Heatmaps of events **URL:** \ **Category:** RootsMagic\ **Tags:** question\ **Created:** [September 8, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208 "2026-09-08T06:09:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tstrickland](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tstrickland/32/7122_2.png) [@tstrickland](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/tstrickland)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/1 "2026-09-08T06:09:05Z")
I would like to create a heatmap of _events vs locations_, and have it overlaid on a real global geographical map. Has anyone ever attempted something like that, or know of another app where I could load the appropraite data to get the same result? ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tomh/32/30_2.png) [@TomH](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 8:41am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/2 "2026-09-08T08:41:12Z")
I did something along these lines a few years ago that might still work. > **[Maps – markers proportional to number of events #googlemaps #geocoding –...](https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/maps-markers-proportional-to-number-of-events/)** ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tomh/32/30_2.png) [@TomH](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 8:55am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/3 "2026-09-08T08:55:09Z")
And this Discourse platform’s AI assisted Related Topics pops out this response from @KimberlyGreen who is deep into using maps to assist her research. > [@Other visualisations](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/other-visualisations/7296/2): > > RM’s ‘Places’ doesn’t quite have the flexibility for everything I want to geographically visualize, so I use Google Earth Pro, combined with downloads such as the [Census bureau cartographic boundary files](https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/cartographic-boundary.html), [ArcGIS](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html), various historical map sites, [Earth Point Township and Range shapefiles](https://www.earthpoint.us/TownshipsSearchByDescription.aspx), etc. I have my ancestors organized in folders by generation, then sub-folder by line, then sub-sub-folder by person. Within each person, I plot their locations for vital events, census locations, … ---
**Author:** ![kevync1985](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3be4f8/32.png) [@kevync1985](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/kevync1985)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 10:48am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/4 "2026-09-08T10:48:26Z")
GEDMINER will give info on “Migration” (such as England to New York). THis can be interesting to look at especially for patterns – but not what you are looking for. You can display info on places using Power BI using the map functions. ---
**Author:** ![KimberlyGreen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/kimberlygreen/32/1640_2.png) [@KimberlyGreen](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/KimberlyGreen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 1:29pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/5 "2026-09-08T13:29:51Z")
Ahhhh the AI monster’s found me 😄 Thanks for the mention @TomH . A quick note: Google Earth Pro desktop app downloads are being shuttered after June 2027. They are shifting users to their web-based product. The desk app will purportedly still work after that. But knowing Google’s habit of discontinuing products, I don’t trust that it’ll work much longer afterwards. And the web-based version is less feature-rich. For that reason I’m shifting my workflow over to [ESRI ArcGIS Earth](https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-earth/overview). My existing Google Maps “Places” KML file imported just fine. Now I’m just getting used to the different interface. ---
**Author:** ![tstrickland](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tstrickland/32/7122_2.png) [@tstrickland](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/tstrickland)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/6 "2026-09-08T23:03:04Z")
Thank you everyone. You got me to thinkin’ (likely a bad thing), and I discovered a thing I haven’t really dug into yet. Supposedly it is Free, but apparently stays online… It’s called [https://mapline.com/](https://mapline.com/)… If any of you have experience with that, I’d love feedback on working with RM data ---
**Author:** ![kevync1985](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3be4f8/32.png) [@kevync1985](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/kevync1985)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 11:32am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/7 "2026-09-09T11:32:48Z")
Power Bi is free but would require a dataconnector to RM database to read places data ---
**Author:** ![Adam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@Adam](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/Adam)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 1:44pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/8 "2026-09-11T13:44:05Z")
There is a feature in Excel to plot data on a map. I’ve had a dabble with it and got some results but the solutions offered by some other replies might be more eloquent. One hurdle is to get the data out of RM in the first place. I don’t do this sort of thing every day so it needed me to do a bit of learning to get there. Some of the initial results I got are on my One-Name study at [Kerfoot - Stats & Maps](https://kerfoot.one-name.net/up/charts.htm) I’ll be looking at the other tools mentioned in this thread so thanks for asking the question. ---
**Author:** ![tstrickland](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tstrickland/32/7122_2.png) [@tstrickland](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/tstrickland)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/9 "2026-09-12T17:11:10Z")
> [@Adam](#): > > Some of the initial results I got are on my One-Name study at [Kerfoot - Stats & Maps](https://kerfoot.one-name.net/up/charts.htm) Adam, I absolutely love the maps & charts you’ve done. That is exactlythe goal I was looking tio solve… Excel you say? Getting the proper data out of RM11 in the first place is no issue for me; I use SQL. I’d love, however, to know how you were able to get from Excel to the mapped presentations… ---
**Author:** ![tstrickland](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tstrickland/32/7122_2.png) [@tstrickland](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/tstrickland)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/10 "2026-09-12T17:13:04Z")
> [@kevync1985](#): > > Power Bi is free but would require a dataconnector to RM database to read places data I’ve now got Power BI Desktop on my PC, and it’s SQLite ODBC driver. Thank you. I’ll be working my way through that for the next while… ---
**Author:** ![tstrickland](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/community.rootsmagic.com/tstrickland/32/7122_2.png) [@tstrickland](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/tstrickland)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 5:26pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/11 "2026-09-12T17:26:16Z")
> [@KimberlyGreen](#): > > For that reason I’m shifting my workflow over to [ESRI ArcGIS Earth](https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-earth/overview) Thank you. Just downloaded ArcGIS… Looks robust. ---
**Author:** ![Adam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@Adam](https://community.rootsmagic.com/u/Adam)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/heatmaps-of-events/16208/12 "2026-09-12T18:24:32Z")
In the insert ribbon, there is a section called Tour. It’s right at the far end of the ribbon for me and there’s just one button in there called 3D Map. Don’t confuse it with the charts section, where there is a Maps option, but that’s not it. When you click on 3D Map it opens a new window where you can select the data to use and the type of map and other display options. The data in your sheet has to contain Latitude and Longitude data but Excel seems to find that of its own accord if it’s there, present in the sheet. The Microsoft help page is at [Get started with 3D Maps | Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel/get-started-with-3d-maps?ns=EXCEL&version=90) They explain it all better than I can. Good luck and I hope it produces what you want.