Today’s Follow Friday post is about a site called Histopolis.com: Collaborative Genealogy & History. I discovered it recently when I was trying to puzzle out two cemeteries in Cook County in Illinois called Oak Hill.
Histopolis not only helped me figure out the correct cemetery and provided a Google map, but it also delivered a township name (very important in the Midwest), GSP coordinates, nearby cities, and nearby cemeteries. Double-click on the image below to see a screenshot of my search result.
I think Histopolis.com is an incredibly well done aggregator site. When you search on Histopolis, it fetches data from these sources:
• Board on Geographic Names (BGN), USGS
• Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system (TIGER), US Census Bureau
• GeoNames.org
• User Data
The example I used above was for a cemetery, but Histopolis also provides information on virtually any geographic location in the United States and Puerto Rico. This information on Truro Township in Knox County, Illinois, would have been so helpful when I was planning my trip there last spring.
The site is supported by advertising and donations, so it’s free to users. You can search without registering, but if you want to contribute information, you need to set up a free account.
Another thing I like about Histopolis is that the 350,000 names in its database are arranged using a place hierarchy, working from states to counties to townships, districts and towns. While it’s not necessary to understand how Histopolis organizes its data, a visit to that page can help you construct effective search strategies.
Obviously I’m quite taken with Histopolis. Give it a try!
You’re both very welcome. I wish it were available for Europe and Scandinavia!
Excellent recommendation – thanks for the tip!
Very cool site! I will have to explore it for my Chicago research.