A huge amount of my research focuses on two particular counties of New York State, my maternal ancestors settled primarily in Clinton County.

Most of my family in Clinton County centers on the towns of Plattsburgh, Peru and Ausable.

The other New York county that a lot of my research has been focused on is Essex County. I have affectionately called Essex County as the black hole of my family history.

For Essex County, a lot of my research is in Chesterfield, Jay and Wilmington. I have lots of research particularly in North Jay but records can be hard to come by.

Recently I have been working on my Dad’s side of the family and I have been focussing on his Italian roots as much of his family stayed in Italy. I stumbled across this map recently and it has really helped me as I have been looking for records.

I have so far found records in Vasto, San Salvo and Lentella. As I have said most of my Italian research is done blind as there is no one alive that really knows anything. My Dad has told me things and next time I see him I am going to sit down and write down everything I can so I can maybe find out more.

I personally love the old insurance maps where you can see who was living where.

I love that the Library of Congress has a great cache of old maps to use for free. Looking at a map always helps me figure things out with locations and how much travel people did by horse and buggy,

What do you like about maps?