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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Using Google to Find Unknown Places

Robert asked
I have been doing research on my Swedish ancestors, and common places I see they are from are Sanna and Stodene. I cannot locate these areas; could you please tell me what county/counties they are in?

Olive Tree Answer: Robert, I'm not sure where you've been looking but I did a Google search for Stodene and found that it is a populated place in Varmland in Sweden.

This link provides you with nearby places and the latitude and longitude so you can find it on a map. I'll leave you to find Sanna using the same method I did but here's a little hint -- if you read the list of "Places near Stodene" on the page at the URL above, you will find Sanna... and a link to read about it.

The moral of this answer is "Never underestimate the power of an online search engine. Or a good map"

1 comment:

  1. Mis-spelled placenames, historical names and very small places need more creativity to find. If you can, narrow your focus to a particular region or the nationality of the person. Wikipedia (including the foreign language sites), WeRelate and region-specific websites can be very helpful. Be aware that the same name can apply to more than one place!

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