52 Weeks to Better Genealogy : Week 7...the results

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog (and hosted by Geneabloggers) presents "52 Weeks To Better Genealogy", a series of weekly genealogy prompts / suggestions / exercises that (hopefully) will help anyone to become a better researcher.

The challenge for week 7:

Play with Google Maps. This is a helpful tool for determining the locations of addresses in your family history. Where your ancestral homestead once stood may now be a warehouse, a parking lot or a field. Perhaps the house is still there. When you input addresses in Google Maps, don’t forget to use the Satellite View and Street View options for perspectives that put you were right there where your ancestors once stood. If you’ve used this tool before, take sometime and play with it again. Push all the buttons, click all the links and devise new ways it can help with your personal genealogy research. If you have a genealogy blog, write about your experiences with Google Maps, or suggest similar easy (and free) tools that have helped in your own research.

The Results:

I've played with Google Maps (and their neat street views) a few times before at work - and sometimes for work (assisting customer's in finding locations, directions, etc.).  This is the first time I've used Google Maps for my research, and I found a few interesting tidbits...

I first decided to google Arnprior District and Memorial Hospital (in Arnprior, McNab twp., Renfrew co., Ontario, CAN), where I was born.  I found myself in luck - with a street view of the building (and the World War I cenotaph visible in front of the building):

(click any image to enlarge)

(map of the Arnprior area on the Ottawa River with the hospital marked)

(hospital sign, dated (I think) 1945?)

(general view, with the sign to the right - it's a nice, old-fashioned building)

Next, I decided to take a wander "up north" to Cobalt (Bucke twp., Temiskaming dist., Ontario, CAN), where my mother was born and my grandparents (her mother and step-father) still reside.  After my parents divorced, this is were we lived until I started kindergarten.  Lo and behold, guess what I found:

(map of Cobalt and surrounding area)

(my grandparents' house!)

(the United Church where my grandparents were married - since she was Baptist and he was Anglican)

(Cobalt railway station, now "The Bunker", a military museum)

After we left Cobalt, I remember riding the train (the Northlander, which was a 10 hour trip) to visit them, and arriving at this station (when it was still the station) at night.  The train is still my favourite way to travel. 

I then went back to the Ottawa area to look at Kinburn (Fitzroy twp., Carleton co., Ontario, CAN), where my father was born and grew up, my parents lived while they were married, and I spent the first two years of my life.  Unfortunately, google failed me here - there was no option for a street view beyond the major roads:

(map of the Kinburn area)

(satellite image of the Kinburn area; in the top right corner (just hidden) is the Kinburn/Carp intersection...)

(the intersection at Carp Rd. and Kinburn Side Rd., looking towards Kinburn - the closest street view I could get on Google)