Probably one of the least used resources in researching an ancestor's religion is maps. Afterall, not many people would think about finding maps that relate to a religion. But maps are a great source in so many ways including their documentation of the migrations of a denomination and religious life of a community.
One example of this comes from the Library of Congress American Memory Map Collections. The Library of Congress has 4.5 million maps, this website shows just a fraction of those maps digitized. You can find all kinds of maps here from atlases and transportation maps to bird's eye view maps to maps drawn from explorations.
One of the maps in this collection is the "Diagram of the south part of the Shaker Village, Canterbury, N.H." This detailed diagram shows the buildings in the village along with a key to the purpose of each building. For those with Shaker ancestors who lived in this village, this map would be a great way to better understand their life.
Once you checked out that map, you could learn more about the Canterbury Shaker Village at their website, where there is another map of the village that allows you to click on a building and see a modern photograph and learn more about the building.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting this! I was driving by there the other day and I thought that Canterbury Shakers would make a great blog post. I couldn't get your first link (the map) to work.
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