Clare GenMaps - mapping surnames, monuments and places in County Clare with Bing, Open Street Map, ESRI and the 1842 Ordnance Survey maps of Clare.

Clare County Library has just launched a brand new online interactive maps service which shows the distribution of surnames in the county in the 19th Century. The new online Clare GenMaps utilise the ESRI ArcGIS API for FLEX, allowing ESRI, Bing and Open Street Maps to be overlaid with historical maps of Clare from 1842. This new system, developed for the library by Rainer Kosbi, enables the visual representation of surname distribution from three distinct sources. The 1820s-1840s Tithe Applotment Books names all tithe payers in the county (excluding the towns and villages), the 1852/1855 Griffith's Valuation names all ratepayers in the county, and the 1901 Census names every person present in the county on census night.

The new Clare GenMaps are now available on the library website at http://www.clarelibrary.ie, and the new interactive heatmaps are directly linked to the thousands of pages on the library website dealing with the archaeology, history, genealogy and administrative divisions of County Clare. There is a helpful video guide to the surnames element included also.