Geographic Names Information System

OK, so you found a record that says your ancestor was born in Deals Gap, Tennessee. Now you ask, "Where the heck is that?" You could always purchase a map of Tennessee and then look for the place. However, many small locations are not shown on modern maps. It is also possible that the place may have existed only in past years and has now disappeared; if so, a current map may not show the place you are interested in. You could try searching on Google. That may or may not find the place you seek.

You might search the online mapping services for Deals Gap. That will probably be successful (1.) if it is an incorporated town and (2.) if it still exists. However, if the location you seek has since disappeared or been absorbed into another nearby municipality, even the mapping sites may not find it.

If you want to find a cemetery within Deals Gap, all of the above "solutions" will probably fail. Luckily, there is an easy answer for online genealogists: look at the U.S. Government's Geographic Names Information System, usually referred to as "GNIS.". Best of all, that database is available to all, free of charge.

The GNIS database can quickly tell you that Deals Gap is along the border separating North Carolina and Tennessee at 35 degrees 28 minutes 26 seconds North, 83 degrees 55 minutes 16 seconds West. In fact, you can then click on an icon to display a map of that area on your computer screen. There is still one more feature: you can even look at a spy satellite photograph of the area.

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. The GNIS identifies the Federally recognized name of each feature described in the database and provides references to each feature's state, county, latitude and longitude.

The GNIS serves two purposes for genealogists. First, it gives precise locations of every village, mountain, river, airport, bay, beach, bridge, etc. in the United States. The information includes the exact latitude and longitude of each named feature. Second, it can help find locations mentioned in old documents.

Here is perhaps the best news of all for genealogists: the GNIS lists many cemeteries, although not all of them. For instance, I know that my great-grandparents were buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. The GNIS describes Pine Grove Cemetery as in Penobscot County at 44 degrees 47 minutes 54 seconds North, 68 degrees 49 minutes 38 seconds West. If I know the name of the cemetery but not the town, the GNIS database will find all the listed cemeteries of that name in the state. Before you head off to a cemetery of a given name, keep in mind that some cemeteries are not in the list. For instance, the small cemetery where my immediate family along with many of my aunts, uncles and cousins are interred and where I plan to spend eternity isn't listed in the GNIS database.

Not only will GNIS provide textual information about a place's location, but it will also automatically link to all of the following:

USGS - National Map
TopoZone.com
GNIS in Google Map
Microsoft Virtual Earth
TerraFly.com
TerraServer DOQ
TerraServer DRG
Find the Watershed
MapQuest
Yahoo! Local Maps
Expedia

By clicking on the appropriate link, you can immediately view that location as displayed in any of the above mapping sites or even look at that location in a photograph taken by a satellite in outer space. With some of the above sites, you can even "fly" over the terrain with a view that emulates a pilot's view when flying an airplane.

GNIS should be a tool in every genealogist's "electronic toolbox." You probably will not need it often; but, when you do, it will provide information that is difficult to find otherwise. The Geographic Names Information System is available at: http://geonames.usgs.gov.

In a future newsletter I will describe how to enter the cemetery's latitude and longitude into a low-cost GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver so that you can drive directly to the cemetery.

Comments

[Miriam Robbins Midkiff]

This site is also a lot of fun to play with, using one's unusual family surnames. For instance, when I plug in my husband's surname, Midkiff, I get two small communities by that name: one in Upton Co., Texas, and the other in Lincoln Co., West Virginia. I know from doing family research that relatives of my husband's ancestors founded these communities.

By the way, the direct link to the search page for domestic (U.S.) locations (which can be a little difficult to navigate from the GNIS home page) is: http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/

[W. David Samuelsen]

You wrote:
"The GNIS serves two purposes for genealogists. First, it gives precise locations of every village, mountain, river, airport, bay, beach, bridge, etc. in the United States. The information includes the exact latitude and longitude of each named feature. Second, it can help find locations mentioned in old documents."

A big chuck there. GNIS had been known to make mistakes. I pointed out several locations not in right place. Like Utah Veteran Memorial Cemetery in wrong county.

Also you wrote:
"For instance, the small cemetery where my immediate family along with many of my aunts, uncles and cousins are interred and where I plan to spend eternity isn't listed in the GNIS database."

Did you try to inform the GNIS manager of the location of this cemetery?
GNIS-Manager
I report every location of cemetery I come across along with the name of it, even giving them old and current names of cemeteries all the time. They do not have every resource book avail to them so the managers depend on you and me to notify them of every cemetery, every lonely burial, etc. Now of all states, Utah and Oregon are considered the most complete when it come to the cemetery listings. New York has a long way to go to attach names to marked cemeteries.

[Trish Lewis]

Now, if there was only something like this for Ireland! I have a transcription of an interview of my great grandfather who was from County Mayo in Ireland that claims he's from a place called "Ampworth". No one in Mayo history/genealogical centers or on email lists has heard of a place called that or anything like that...*sigh*

[Jack MacKeen]

The FAQ at the site "http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/" notes that each logon is automatically assigned a session ID number. If you bookmark it without removing the session ID number, the link will not work in the future.

[Happy Dae]

Should we ignore it because GNIS has errors? Would that attitude apply to the Federal and State Censuses? Knowing that some death certificates have errors, should we then avoid these, too? Humans err. We as family historians err, too.

If "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," I suggest we sample this resource, verify it with other sources, and record our findings accordingly. Does this make any sense to anyone else?

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

[Edith Sherwood]

To Trish Lewis: About finding the name of a small place in Ireland, here is a suggestion. See if your local LDS Family History Center still has the old microfiche version of the IGI (International Genealogical Index). At the very beginnning of the microfiche cards there used to be a list of all the places and it told how they are listed in the IGI. Many of the newer librarians don't know about it, because most people use the Family Search Internet version now. Of courses, your place may still not be listed, but it's worth a try.

[Eric Bragg]

I have used GNIS for many years and find it a valuable resource for locating named places. One can also search for feature type, such as cemetery, to list all cemeteries in, say, a county. So if you're not sure of the spelling of a place name this sometimes helps. There are occasional errors in the data, but these are usually minor and can be worked around. There are a number of locations listed for which the geographic location is not known (latitude, longitude). It would be useful if private sources could provide information regarding the location of such places so that updates to the GNIS could reflect this missing information. Regarding locations of foreign places, there are a number of sites that may prove useful. These include Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/index.html), NGA GEOnet Names Server (http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html), and Google Earth (a downl;oadable application), all of which I highly recommend.

[S L Stoeckle]

Here's another way to use GNIS. If you don't know the name of a county, type in the name of the town or city (and select the state). Thid is handy if you don't have a copy of the Handy book...well, handy.