| Clare County Library | Library News and Developments |
Library unveils GenMaps PIONEERING new heatmap technology is helping researchers shine a light on family history in Clare. Clare County Library has recently launched a new online interactive maps service which shows the distribution of surnames in the county in the 19th century. The new online Clare GenMap at www.clarelibrary.ie utilize the ESRI ArcGIS API for FLEX, allowing ESRI, Bing and Open Street Maps to be overlaid with historical maps of Clare from 1842. This new system, developed for the library by Rainer Kosbi, enables the visual representation of surname distribution from three distinct sources. The 1820’s – 1840’s Tithe Applotment Books names all tithe payers in the county (excluding the towns and villages), the 1852/1855 Griffith’s Valuation names all ratepayers in the county, and the 1901 Census names every person present in the county on census night. “This is a major contribution to the wealth of data on the library website,” says county librarian Helen Walsh. “It is a completely new way of accessing the genealogical data on the website, and shows clearly over time the spread of surnames across the country. It is a major new tool for anyone searching for their ancestors in Clare, and should be of great benefit to the Ireland Reaching Out and The Gathering projects.” Clare County Library has been gathering the data for this project and publishing it online over many years. “We had been working with Rainer Kosbi for quite some time in trying to develop a visual approach to identifying surname distribution in County Clare,” says senior executive librarian Anthony Edwards, the manager of the library website and instigator of the project. “Rainer had developed map systems for us in the past, and had also helped us create surname frequency tables based on historic data.” According to executive librarian Maureen Comber, “the heatmaps allow you to view the occurrence and concentration of specific surnames within the county during the 19th century. This function is particularly valuable for people tracing their ancestors when they don’t know where in the county they came from.” The new maps have already been getting a warm welcome.
Irish Genealogy News says that Clare County Library “has created
the most sensational maps resource.” |