# Other visualisations **URL:** \ **Category:** RootsMagic\ **Tags:** question, feature-request\ **Created:** [April 23, 2023, 8:20am UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/other-visualisations/7296 "2023-04-23T08:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 2
**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:** [April 23, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/other-visualisations/7296/2 "2023-04-23T19:40:08Z")
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. ![KzX253pda2](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/4/4e866844f9f753c08c23c2c9549cc8f9e165eb13.png) Within each person, I plot their locations for vital events, census locations, etc. I also highlight their birth locations at the greatest granularity possible, whether that’s an entire state, a county, a city, etc. That gives me to ability to turn on or off entire generations at a time to see movement patterns, as well as individual lines, etc. A future effort is to create a per-Census folder so that I can inspect patterns that way. ![googleearth_ON4mMgARsC](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/7/77f08a90811995aee1cc673fa134e9238e71b332.gif) There are also folders specifically for burial locations and speculative people. The burials folder is so that I can plan out future visitations in clusters, such as Texas + Arkansas and Massachusetts + Maine. Two of the really helpful visualizations I can do: - plot land grant locations - historical map overlays. Both have, in more than one case, helped explain things. #### Example 1: Locating Levant Van De Bogart circa 1870 I’ve yet to find any land documents for that timeframe for him. But with a historical map overlay, I was able to identify more granularly where my 3x ggf lived. And, because the map is from 1875, I know his move to another place in Iowa happened after that timeframe and before the 1880 census. ![googleearth_rpZlP3dFxa](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/5/5e974849504067c31954efd990a0146997e55b68.jpeg) #### Example 2: Locating Ben Cagle's land circa 1913 The town his family lived in no longer exists. But plotting their land tells me where they lived. He also had a brother and son acquire land adjacent. ![googleearth_bqOdKsjGly](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/7/79672b81c1a058043ccdfa947e97f7c79d67b3d6.jpeg) #### Example 3: Proximity of 4x and 3x gg-parents Plotting the land owned by the two families helped explain how two of my 2x gg-parents met. My 2x ggm was staying with her grandparents while the family moved. She subsequently met the son of my 3x gg-parents who were only about 3 miles away. ![googleearth_MtBbc2faJT](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/rootsmagic/original/2X/d/d1cf1a5a5e06a852b0567477f616463c3d7ac227.jpeg) --- _[View the full topic](https://community.rootsmagic.com/t/other-visualisations/7296)._