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Google Street View and past life validations

Sunniva

Sunniva

Administrator Emeritus
This afternoon I was revisiting some old memories of mine. These are memories of a lifetime in (UK) Birmingham's punk-rock environment during the 1970's and early 1980's. You can read more about these memories here.

Among the memories I have of this lifetime is one of the street where I believe my parents' house was. I have described in the thread above. Back in 2008 when I was remembering all of this I went to Google Earth to check out the Birmingham area, but obviously you can only zoom in to an extend, so my results were limited. This afternoon I suddenly thought that perhaps it would be interesting to try Google Street View on the Birmingham area to see if I could find any housing that fit my memory.

As a matter of fact I did. I'm not saying I found the actual house from my memory, but I certainly had a validation that the type of house, the colour, the placing of the door and the windows, the frontyard, etc. is present in the Birmingham surburbs (try to search 'Yockleton Rd., Birmingham' - the houses I'm talking about are the yellowish ones).

Now, I'm wondering if others have tried Google Street View for validation of an area that they believed they used to live in? I know the service is not available everywhere and in Europe only the western part has been mapped to a certain extent, but some of you may find it interesting nevertheless if you have a feeling about a town, a place name, an area, etc. I think that it's a very interesting media for research and it could potentially be very helpful to people since you can check out places that you wouldn't otherwise be able to.

I would love to hear if any of you have any experiences with Google Street View and validations of past lives?
:)
 
That sounds like a really cool idea! Actually, I could use Google street view if I knew how to use it ... could you give a short tutorial or link to something like that??? :thumbsup:
 
A very short tutorial is:


1. Go to google.com


2. Click on 'maps'


3. Now you can search any location.


4. When you've found the location you're interested in, click on the little yellow man and drag him out on the map. If Google Street View is available on the chosen location the streets will light up in blue when you move the yellow man.


:)


Do let us know what you find out! :thumbsup:
 
I remember the name of the small town I was from in my last life. I've never been there (in this life) and I know nothing about it. Until I explored my past life, I had never heard of this town. I used the Google street view (such a cool feature - it's like you're standing right there on the street) to explore the town. I did not find the house in my memory, but a couple other things grabbed my attention.


When I had my memory, a couple things seemed different to me. Where I live now, all the residential streets are paved concrete and have curbs. Also, (almost) all the houses have garages. In my memory, the road in front of our house was asphalt instead of concrete, and it had no curb. Our house did not have a garage either. When I was looking at this town on google, all the residential streets were asphalt with no curbs, and most of the houses I was looking at did not have a garage. It's interesting that a couple details that I remembered that are not the norm where I live are typical of a community that I had no previous knowledge of.


It seems to be somewhat of a low-income community. I remember in my regression feeling a sense of desperation to leave that town. I couldn't wait to go to college to get away. To be honest, looking around on Google, the town almost made me feel depressed - like I just wanted to stay away from it. Though I couldn't point to any one thing that I recognized, there was a general sense of familiarity - like not much has changed since then.
 
That was a good idea, and congrats for your validation, Marie! :thumbsup:


I checked the neighbourhood in Boston I know we lived in in the 1950's, and the exact street I thought we might have lived on, seemed now wrong. Things can change in 50-60 years, but not that much, I think. I will have to look around to bit more to try and find the right street... It shouldn't be too hard. Aili, wanna help? ;)


Karoliina
 
This is one of the coolest research tools ... Thanks, Sunniva!:thumbsup:


I went to a place I "remembered" from adolescence, I have never been there in this lifetime. There's no question ... it's just how pictured it in my mind's eye.


Funny thing is, I decided to test it on more recent memories and had a hard time recognizing a house I lived in only 10 years ago (it had been painted)! :laugh:


I think one of the keys to getting the most out of street view is to look for a historic building which is unlikely to have changed since you would have remembered it, that has a high emotional meaning to you. Like, a church where you would have been married or something.
 
I' m reviving this thread because actually Google street view is a really good tool for researching places and I have recommended it before as well.


However, I was never successful with it myself, I' m trying to validate a "Tunnel that led to a small bridge"... in Sao Paulo, one of the biggest cities in the world...(if it is indeed that I meant in my memory "city of Sao Paulo" and not state) lucky me.
 
Just thought I'd bring this thread back as Google Street View is a very useful tool :thumbsup: I've used it myself to confirm the location of the church in Husbands Bosworth, next to road which curves down a slope. Of course the town has changed a lot in 800 years, but the church was still recognisable. I've also tried to use it to locate my most recent life in New England; the area around New Bedford looked familiar but wasn't lucky enough to stumble upon my old house :tongue:


Has anyone else tried using Google Street View to research or validate PL memories?
 
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