Place My Past adds US cemeteries, churches and other genealogical points of interest

A relatively new startup company from Brisbane, Australia, Place My Past, uses a combination of modern maps, overlaid with historical maps to enrich family histories with stories about the places and events which surrounded our ancestors. Place My Past has recently added datasets for US cemeteries, churches, hospitals schools and other points of interest from the United States Geographic Names Information System to its collection of historical maps and spatial datasets. The collection covers many thousands of buildings and features relevant to genealogical research.

Taken from a recent press release, the datasets can be viewed as an overlay on a modern map and on top of historical maps from Place My Past’s collection of maps. Pins marking family events can be viewed at the same time providing users with a visual and geospatial representation of their family tree. These datasets, are a significant addition to Place My Past’s growing collection of maps and geospatial datasets which also recently added:

• Historical country boundaries for the 16th and 18th centuries
• 19th and 20th century Ordnance Survey maps of the UK
• A collection maps of Paris from the 15th to 20th centuries
• Cemeteries on the Somme battlefield
• UK battlefields
• A dataset of historic places in Albuquerque
• Stations and other points of interest from the 19th century Minneapolis Twin Cities transit system

Place My Past’s collection of maps and datasets can be viewed on the site’s Gallery.

Users can upload their family tree, have it plotted on a map and then view information and images about the places where their family events took place. Users can also:

• View their family’s migration over time
• Collaborate with others to build up a unique picture of a family, local or global event
• Make notes and draw on their family history map with annotation tools
• Upload their own historical maps and view other users’ maps, and maps from the Place My Past collection
• View visualisations of historical datasets such as boundary maps, mortality rates, population densities, historical points of interest and lots more

Place My Past is a free system with advanced features for subscribers.