For map lovers: New England historic maps online

I am a lover of maps, so you can imagine my excitement when I learned of the University of New Hampshire Library website's Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York. Dating from the late 19th-century to 1950, this topographical collection is a treasure for anyone researching the New England area. According to the website, "This online collection of over 1,500 USGS topographic maps includes complete geographical coverage of New England and New York from the 1890s to 1950s." The digital collection was placed on the internet because of the difficulty that researchers experienced trying to access historic maps of the area. In particular, one map enthusiast interested in locating abandoned railroad right of ways in New Hampshire began the project after finding that no single New Hampshire library had a complete collection of historic maps of the state.

The digital map collection now includes images from many research repositories in New Hampshire covering various areas of New England and New York. Digital maps from the Harvard University Map Collection are also included.

I found a gem in this 1941 survey of the Quincy, Massachusetts area which includes a view of the Fore River shipyard where many of my Tierney family ancestors worked.

Also researching Massachusetts? You might want to start with the Historic USGS Maps of Massachusetts Alphabetic Town Listing.

Thanks to Dick Hillenbrand of Upstate New York Genealogy for mentioning the map collection at Old Maps of New York Towns Online and to Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings for spreading the news about the Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York.

In search of Patrick

Well, I'm stumped. I've made phone calls to the St. Francis Xavier Catholic cemetery in Weymouth where Patrick Tierney would more than likely have been buried back in 1900, but he did not appear to be listed in their records. The cemetery, which was founded in 1850, was certainly open for business during Patrick's day. But where is Patrick, who I thought to have been laid to rest there in 1900?

It is now 107 years ago since Patrick Tierney passed away. He and his family had moved to Quincy from the North End just a few years before, and he must have been suffering from illness for quite some time. His obituary on page three of the Quincy Patriot Ledger of August 7, 1900 indicates that before his passing he had suffered "an illness of several years". According to the listing of his death on the civil registry, Patrick died of mitral stenosis. Just 59 years old but worn out from a hard life of stress and labor, he left his family to pass to the next life.

Patrick's death record in the civil registry lists him buried in Weymouth, but I cannot seem to find him there. Family members who died after him, beginning in the 1920's, are buried in New Calvary Cemetery in Mattapan, Boston, Suffolk County. Patrick is not among them. But where is he?

I've had other ancestors trouble me with hard to find information and missing records, but many of Patrick's records were easy enough to find. I just can't find where he is buried.

Must I search through all the cemeteries (where an Catholic Irishman might have been buried) in Norfolk, Suffolk and Middlesex counties in order to find him?

Patrick, oh Patrick, will you ever turn up?