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Mention Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Street View to many people and you&rsquo;ll likely get one of two responses. The person you&rsquo;re speaking to either raves about them or claims they are annoying intrusions into privacy.
				Whatever you say, it&rsquo;s undeniable that these portrayals of American communities can be quite useful to genealogists. Search &ldquo;Google Maps&rdquo; for borders, place names and what&rsquo;s where. Earth (click on an inset on the map) shows photos of communities from the air, and you can zero in on them quite well. Street View (another click) gives you a virtual walk (or drive) along a given street, which can be an amazing experience.
				Since they are modern, they can&rsquo;t tell you much about your ancestors who lived there. But they can show you what if anything remains of your ancestors&rsquo; old neighborhoods and what has changed. At best, you&rsquo;ll be able to orient yourself should you decide to make a trip.
				For a genealogist, my belief is that the best way to use the Google products is to combine them with historic maps of the American communities you are researching.
				In the late 1800s and early 1900s the Sanborn company made maps of communities large and small all over America. These maps consisted of outline drawings of buildings along all the streets of the community, with brief descriptions of them and information about fire protection. Fire insurance companies bought these maps to determine risk and to set rates.
				If through city directories or other research you know your ancestors&rsquo; home and business addresses, you will find them by street and number on a Sanborn map. You get the maps simply by searching &ldquo;Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps&rdquo; and adding the state&rsquo;s name.
				Then you can go to the Google Maps, Earth and Street View, finally zeroing in on the places you&rsquo;ve just looked up on the Sanborn maps. Of course, it&rsquo;s likely that a great deal has changed. Perhaps your ancestors&rsquo; streets and neighborhoods are now gone. Street names can change as well. Remember also that the Sanborn maps stressed developed areas. Areas that grew up later might not be on the maps.
				If you have access to a good historical society or town historian (which some states employ) in the place you&rsquo;re researching, you should be able to get help finding other historic maps and relevant pages from city directories to pin down your ancestors.
				Pandemic Stories: The Nanticoke Historical Society continues to welcome local people&rsquo;s accounts of their experiences coping with the pandemic. People in the Nanticoke area are asked to send a few paragraphs outlining &ldquo;regarding how the quarantine has affected you and your family, if you lost a loved one to the virus, if you volunteered to help, or if you or a member of your family were front line responders.&rdquo;
				The plan is to &ldquo;create a record for historical purposes, so that future generations can see how we responded locally,&rdquo; writes Editor Judy Minsavage in the group&rsquo;s recent bulletin. Send submissions to 495 East Main St., Nanticoke, PA 18634 or email to history@nanticokehistoryonline.org.
				News Notes: While our genealogy-related groups for the most part remain closed, those who depend on them for their research should resolve to help them when they do reopen. Historical societies, genealogy societies and museums all need donations and volunteers to do research, conduct tours and staff visitor desks. The same is true of public libraries. These organizations all have websites and Facebook pages with contact information

Out on a Limb: Google Maps, Google Earth can help genealogists