ADDENDUM to East Texas example: Using GNIS.

Not long after the article was published, this insightful letter from John Mountain (jm2222@aol.com) described using GNIS to help identify the locations of things before you go.

I just finished reading your excellent article in the Spring issue of Genealogical Computing (April-May-June, 2003, Vol. 22.4).  I thought your points on using GPS to avoid wasting all your precious search time on being lost were well taken.  How many times do we wind almost where we should be and then spend half a day zeroing in on the target?  Not only is it a waste of time but gets very frustrating, which doesn't lead to that cool, calm demeanor possessed by all genealogists.

I was puzzled by one thing in your article: Why was there no mention of the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) of the US Geological Service?  I am sure you must be fully cognizant of this outstanding resource.

To illustrate its usefulness, let's use your example of the Pine Grove Cemetery in Texas (which turns out to be a very good one to use).  Using only the information given in your text, this is what I found. 

First, by going to GNIS <http://geonames.usgs.gov/> and choosing "United States and Territories" I am able to enter the following search criteria.

   Feature Name:     Pine Grove
   State or Territory: Texas
   Feature Type:       cemetery

This yields a list of four Pine Grove cemeteries.  One each in the counties of Collin, Grimes, Liberty and Rusk.  Not being familiar with east Texas, I next used GNIS to find that Henderson is in Rusk County.  Just my luck!  While the exact longitude and latitude is given for each of the cemeteries in Collin, Grimes and Liberty counties along with the name of the USGS map upon which they appear, all this information is "unknown" for the Pine Grove cemetery in Rusk County. 

Now, just on a hunch, I decide to look at Pine Grove churches in Rusk County.  It turns out that Rusk County has three Pine Grove churches.  When I look at the details for these churches and look at their Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) information, I find that of the last two, one is located 8 km west of Pinehill and the other is 5 km west of Pinehill.  Looking at your map and reading your directions to Pine Grove don't shed much light on which is "your" Pine Grove (if, indeed, either is) until I notice that the last one is located right off County Road 2867.  Voilà!  There's that County Road 2867 from the GenWeb directions.  That church is located at 32° 06' 08" N and 094° 39' 13" W and is shown on the Minden USGS 7.5' Map.  If it were me, this is the spot I would be headed for when I went looking for Pine Grove cemetery.  Of course I would be carrying all information on the other cemeteries, just in case.  You know that old saw about "The best laid plans...."

GNIS is not the end-all, be-all for geographic information, but it certainly is a powerful tool.  Combined with other information, it might just lead you straight to your target.

Thanks

John B. Mountain
Huntsville, AL
25 Mar 2003
 

Thank you, Mr Mountain. Here is the resulting map.