Memnison Journal

At various times, I get into research projects; some simmer on for decades in various forms, and some break off and pick up speed because I happen to run into something that really fuels the fire, so to speak.

My library here is largely one that I use for reference. I have a huge amount of material that isn’t in book form, and I’m going through that all the time and hacking away at it to be able to organize and marshal the stuff. At present, the idea is to digitize everything, and use various management utilities to be able to find and figure out what’s what.

Here’s a *short* list of the topics I’m still digging for:

Love what you’ve done with your hair and the outfit.  Is that a Cuban cigar?

Cripes howdy, but I’m getting a lot of private mail on this one from that earlier post.  Let me say that I was in a hurry to post, but that I had my own set of problems with all of those maps.

Here’s some new maps that have been pointed out to me:

This is an odd one, mostly focusing on the Romance Languages (if you include English as one from its heavy French influences, which I gather that they are.   Here’s another view of what looks like the same map, with some more English stuff and more of a descriptive note on the languages noted.  (It’s from some pro-Galician cultural outfit.)  What it seems to be useful for is in finding the small Romance-based dialects and languages around in Western and Southern Europe.  Further parts focus on the Iberian peninsula, specifics on Galicia, subdialects of Galician, and so on.

This isn’t a map, but it may help a lot with figuring out the odd languages in Russia - it’s a list and information about each.  There’s similar information on France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, the UK, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, and so on.

Here’s a nice layout of the Indo-European family for reference.  And a crude map as to where to find them.

Here’s the Wikipedia map for the European Languages.

Some kind of German referent on the same.  Hate the map.  If you want a good general site for German information, try this site.

This is a nice but a little dated map on the German dialects and spread of colonies of German-speakers in Central Europe, but WW2 made this obsolete.

A map and discussion of Dutch and West German languages and dialects/similar languages (such as Frisian, etc).  And a map of the language divisions in Belgium.  (Yes, I have Dutch and Belgian readers.  Why do you ask? *grin*)

A really detailed map set on Swiss languages and their forms.

A very nice collection of maps and links on the general subject of maps of language use is here.  I liked this map of the Ancient Italian peninsula and the languages there…

Museum exhibits:

• Historical maps from Dutch cartographers
• Mapping Arabia (from Aramco)
• Historical maps of Macau (Library of Congress)
• The David Rumsey collection (worldwide historical maps)
• The Social Explorer (US Census maps 1940-2000)

Chinese Maps:

• Shanghai, 1928
• More pre-PRC China maps (heavy on Shanghai)
• GIS: Chinese Historical GIS
• GIS: Chinese Civilization in Time and Space (a little arcane for me, but maybe you can dig it)

German / European Maps:

• 1883 Ravenstein atlas of the German Empire, downloadable as PDFs.
• a collection of German-language maps for the last 150 years, which are mostly available in digital reproduction for around 5 Euros a throw; you can preview them all over the place online, one small swatch at a time. Looks like good scans.
• another collection of German-language maps, most of which is online in medium-quality (and good for all that) and purchasable in sets of CDs. Pretty impressive stuff. Here’s an example of downtown Berlin.
• Various Berlin maps, mostly of the Cold War period.
• A historical map server with nice if plain computer-generated maps of Europe.
• Several good maps from the Anglo-Saxon period in England/Britain.
• If you want a good printed set of pre-WW2 atlas reproductions to buy, try Genealogy Unlimited in Canada. Prices aren’t bad, considering what you’re getting.
• Historical online interactive map of Britain over the last 200 years. Impressive if you’re looking for a particular place and you want to see the progress there over time.
• Pre-WW2 German wall maps for sale; I DO NOT agree with the philosophy of this site, but the maps look nice.
• Sort of a flag and administration resource for Germany, not really maps but interesting.

Genealogical Maps and information: Researchers trying to find some small village in Hamberdoorst sub-province where Grandpa Georg cam from are digging around for information, and they want DETAIL. Here’s a short set of map info related to that.

• Small collection of German maps from a family geneological site.
• More complex geneological reference for Germany and the adjacent area, with lots of maps of the period and historical maps, requires a little drill-down.
• Another geneological site with lots of good German, Russian and Eastern European atlas maps from around 110 years ago. Tons of detail.
• Cyndi’s List of Genealogy sites includes a lot of individual country pages, with good links to local maps of all-over-the-place. Very well worth a browse.

Other:

• Maps for sale from a Spanish-American War site of various places important in the 1890s. Looks reasonably priced.
• Map and article on the Franz-Ferdinand linked project of a United States of Greater Austria; useful for alternate history sorts who posit that Franz Ferdinand missed his assassination in Sarajevo and became Emperor-King.
• Drool city; a Tennessee maps and globes store that specializes in selling antique maps. Worth a scan.
• German settlement in Russia.