Look at your forefather's homestead from bird's eye view!

Zenon — Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:41 am

Author: Zenon

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:41 am

Many of you probably already heard and used google earth tool which enables for "flying" anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain. Recently, a new Poland map project prototype was launched online http://www.geoportal.gov.pl/ . The idea of project is similar to the earth.google.com but it has one, very significant for researchers and family historians, advantage over the google project - it covers not only cities but also rural areas of present-day Poland. And this is, for the most part, where our ancestors emigrated from!

You can zoom in so much the map that you will see a single house in even the smallest village! Just look at the picture below.

This is a bird's eye view of cemetery in Olszyny village, county Tarnow. Here: http://polishorigins.com/document/genealogy_tours (Nancy's photo album entitled Olszyny) you will find pictures of the village and the parish cemetery. Photographs 'Cemetery' and 'Cemetery from a distance' are taken from the main village road which you can find on the picture above in the top right corner, among trees. Look how clearly visible are the houses nearby cemetery.

You can also see sattelite picture of the whole village, like the one below: Łyszkowice in Łowicz county.

Unfortunately, the website is in Polish only. However, if you know where the village of your ancestors was located you can use the map of Poland outline http://www.geoportal.gov.pl/ and when you "arrive" by clicking smaller and smaller areas to the borough where the village should be located just click "Zobacz wybraną mapę" ("See chosen map") link. There you can mark area which you are interested in and adjust by zooming in or out.

Have a nice journey!

PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Look at your forefather's homestead from bird's eye view!