Progress on The Maps, With A Little Help From My Friend

      First I would like to thank Dara at Black Raven Genealogy for her help in determining what the flora my Gunn family seemed to live among in the nineteenth century might have been. Dara shared with me a link for this wonderful page--  OSI Characteristic Sheet which suggests the Gunns lived in an orchard.  She also shared a site called, Geohive-Spatial data made easy, a collection of old and new maps which is far superior in ease of use to Ask About Ireland or Find My Past.  You need only type in a townland and the viewer goes straight to that place, no hunting around the map. Once there I selected Gallery from the toolbar at the top of the page, scrolled down to, "Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer".  I chose the 6 inch black and white historical map, typed in Ballygolouge or Ballygowloge, it recognized both, and in seconds it was in front of me. It even asked if I would like it to zoom in for me...why, yes please.  I enlarged the image as much as the site allowed, then took a screenshot which I pasted into my paint program.

     Next stop was the photo editing site BeFunky where I can resize images using "lock aspect ratio" which allows me to enlarge without fuzziness.  This is the result--

Lot 1 in Ballygolouge County Kerry

     I was amazed!  This image is much clearer than any of the other maps I looked at.  I can even see a pine tree or two in the image now.  There was indeed a forested area at the top of the lot! 

     I enjoyed looking at Goldengarden on the site also, though I'm still not sure exactly where my 3rd great-grandfather Cornelius Ryan lived in the townland.  I never realized from the other maps I've viewed over the years that Goldengarden sits on the banks of the Multeen River.  As does Alleen where the family also lived for a time.

     Thank you again Dara, I am having so much fun with these sites...