Research question for all you relic hunters.

Where do you begin to locate encampments or sites to hunt? I'm getting ready to move to the heart of Texas and would like to start doing some relic hunting along with my usual coin shooting. Is there a certain source you use or do you just go to the library and start researching local history? Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Library of congress online has a ton of historic maps then I overlay them with modern maps

How do you do the overlays?

Download the map and overlay it with Google earth or maps.You can also do it with historic map works. There is YouTube videos showing the exact method.

Jesse Wrote:
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> Download the map and overlay it with Google earth
> or maps.You can also do it with historic map works
> . There is YouTube videos showing the exact method
> .


Thank you for the information!!

You might get lucky and find some older USGS certified maps that will plug straight into Google Earth. I had some maps I had overlayed and had "close" but not exact. Then I found those certified ones somewhere and Google Earth uses the data from them to automatically layer and overlay them with current imagery. Mine only go back to 1895 but it is enough to show the major road routes and from that, I can reason that the same roads were there 30 yrs before, during the War. Once I figure their main routes, then I start looking for stopping points along those routes. Creek crossings are favorite spots of mine as they would often stop after crossing and or place picket posts there. Cross roads are another....but are often harder to hunt. Often times the main routes were simply widened and paved over in modern times and most of these places have long been dozered or paved over. Of course the Official Records can never be overlooked...you can search them for places of interest near you...towns, etc. In my area though, people have used the ORs since they were first available and any sites that are mentioned in them, have long been found and pounded by other hunters.

https://historicaerials.com/viewer has historic maps with the overlay feature built in. I use it a lot to find old structures that are long gone.

In addition to map-studies mentioned here by others : Also involved yourself in historical societies as a docent volunteer member. It might involve 6 hrs. per month manning a desk, or doing tours, etc.. But I've found that the credentials get you "back pocket access" to historians, historical material, back-rooms, etc... Yeah yeah, fox guarding the hen-house, but ... oh well

And having the name-badge and title is also helpful in gaining permission to sites . Eg.: the Reason you're inquiring of a local landowner, about the such & such (stage stop, defunct resort, etc...) rumored to be somewhere on his back -40 is that you're a worker at such & such museum, doing research for an article you're writing, blah blah blah.

Dan, a couple of years ago at a club hunt in South Carolina, they used a program that would work with any old map when over laying it on new one, as long as you had North and one existing landmark from the older map. Worked great but don't remember the program. I downloaded it back then but it was too complicated for me. Might try googling it.. It is out there somewhere.. Richard

I love the research almost as much as finding the history. start with a google search of interesting local history and locate possible sites. The library can give additional information, and the land records in the courthouse, county recorders office, land transfers, and title search. Land owners are very receptive and I have yet to be turned down. Some do not care what you find and let you keep it all. Others are greedy and want it all. I explain that what is in their ground is useless till I find it. Actually, removing items that connect that ground, to its history, original owners, etc is to tear a page out of history. To disconnect an item from its place is to disconnect it from history. I sure enjoy finding it all.

Find the battle sites which are documented then look for the connecting roads between them and look along those roads for creeks and old houses etc..the main roads may well be off the beaten path now or long forgot out in the woods or fields from modern day roads..

Study the units involved in the battles..break them down into say cavalry infantry artillery etc...then take a unit you are curious about and start to see if say anyone wrote say a unit history of them or even just mentions them in a broader book...then look and see in back of book in bibliography index where they got the info from...Usually a broad scope book or even a unit history book does not cover day to day things about the unit...look and see where info came from then track that info down and hopefully theres a few diary listed and hope it was published..

Say 3rd/6th/9th Texas cavalry L.S Ross Brigade...Thats my passion!!!

get hold of a General overview book..



read where info came from for book in biblio index.................. Diaries..

then you can move to a more centralized book like this



The you can hopefully find the diaries are published

heres a 6th Texas day by day diary



Heres a 9th Texas diary day by day with drawn maps



Heres a 3rd Texas




Now theres the Ross brigade which was composed of 3rd/6th/9th Texas...I can create a picture of day by day movements down to the houses they stopped at or creeks they watered at on an intimate basis...even know there hardships and such they faced..Iv'e found may of their spots in my area way off the beaten path way back in the woods and the best part is I know what they were thinking or doing when the dropped their items..

Sometimes theres no published diaries or if they were they are so old and on time printing they are hard to get or are really expensive..

Luckily the non published can usually be found if they exist in a library..I get diaries from Mississippi university and Texas etc collections ...if you can find a reference to them just call the library collections and ask for a copy..usually they will do it for a small fee...

here's one out of Mississippi university collection..



Once you get a day by day detail and Learn where they were at and what roads they used then you will know where to center up your searches..and even if they did not mention every thing they did you can piece together the rest..say you find the road they used and its long forgot..you can still stay on that road and find the old house places and watering holes they may have not talked about but they stopped at anyways..Any house on a traversed road form that period they went to I assure you and they lost something while they were there..

In my area I know where Texas cavalry was every day for a 60 mile stretch and very rarely was they on the big main battlefields...they were fighting everyday but off the beaten path somewhat..I know they kept artillery pieces with them with a group out of South Carolina who took fort Sumter and beginning of the war and they had Whitworth sharpshooters with them too an elite unit from Louisiana..I've found artifact to back that up as well..Whitworth bullets and South Carolina pre war buttons..I know they also had Mississippi cavalry Alabama cavalry along side them though in separate unit they moved together as a whole..And they also offer more writings from diary's etc...

Once you start assembling some info it will lead to things and ideas youve never thought...The leads never stop and they shouldn't if they do your not pursuing it fully..

even things you could never fathom can turn up in research

I have one tidbit out of a diary I wish I could share but I cant but I'm sure its real and its not a treasure tale but something far more extravagant and at the time life or death situation something was hid from enemy and never recovered...

Detecting is fun and all even talking about machines etc, but to touch history and relieve it for a split second is the real treasure quest..That's why I want best equipment possible..I want a true forensic look at certain spots dear to me even down to the nails..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla