Mapping Monday- National Institute of Genealogical Studies

I’ve been taking some fun classes through the National Institute of Genealogical Studies.  The class I just finished was, Electronic Resources: Using The Internet.  After each module of learning, there are some assignments and the assignment in today’s module had to do with Google Maps and Historical Directories.  Because Google Maps is old hat for me, I try to challenge myself and work a part of the family I have not concentrated on before.  So today I chose my Badgley family. 

My Badgley family history was “done” and given to me by a cousin.  I don’t have a terrific time with this.  Some people jump for joy when they find a cousin who has spent 50 years researching and has all this info to share.  While it’s great to know, you then usually need to go back through and validate it all.  I don’t like that part. 

So for the most part I've ignored my Badgleys.  But today with this assignment from the Institute, I decided to start in Canada.  It is said that my Badgleys were Loyalists, fleeing from New Jersey to Ontario.  My second great grandfather, William Deyo Badgley, died in Thurlow (now Belleville), Hastings, Ontario, Canada in 1873.  What would make him interesting? I asked myself.  I found him on the 1861 Canadian census and saw that he was a farmer.  Maybe I’d like him more if I saw his farm.  I Google Mapped Belleville, but I wanted to know and see his actual farm. 

Having never researched in Canada before (or, actually, in the United States FOR Canada), I Googled “Thurlow Ontario City Directory.”  It brought me to the QuintBranch, Ontario Genealogical Society website.  This website has amazing links, among them a link to a 1864-1865 Directory of the County of Hastings and Belleville, Ontario.  Page  353 of this directory showed that he was, indeed, from the township of Thurlow (which is now part of Belleville) and he was on the “VII Concession, Lot 24”.  I had no idea what this was, so I found an article about the Canadian County Atlas and read about concessions and lots.  I then found a township map with marked names of residents.  Using the process of elimination, I found the seventh concession, lot 24 and then used the township map alongside Google Map to find my ancestor’s actual farm.  Sadly, there is no street view, but it is still beautiful to see from a satellite!