Genealogists use maps of political and geographical features for many reasons, including to see where records might have been maintained and where an ancestor might have easily traveled to find a spouse or a job.
But maps of human relationships, biological, legal, and social may help as well. A family tree extending for ten generations may be nice to display, but is is helpful to your research when you are stuck on a specific person? A smaller chart, showing the relatives they may have interacted with may be more helpful. Don't neglect to include "step" relatives and "in-laws" as those are people your ancestor may have interacted with as well. Another chart showing people the "problem" ancestor interacted with may be helpful also--just be certain the nature of their interaction (witness, neighbor, etc.) so that you don't get more confused.
Is there a sample "map" to give us a jump-start? Sounds like a good idea, but I don't know how to start.
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