In the words of one historian, 'On the way wagons had climbed the Second Blue Ridge, the Tuscara, the Locust, the Mahoney, the Board and the Little Mountains and had encountered the Block House Ridge and several other formidable sprags of the Alleghenies. With detailed, topographical maps, one can trace this journey. Here are some practical steps for preparing good maps for your family history. When reviewing your manuscript, make sure that each place name is given its proper context. If your atlases don't help you locate a place you will have to visit the reference section of your library and consult a 'gazetteer' which is a comprehensive index of a country's place names and usually locates places by longitude and latitude coordinates.
Universities have excellent map collections too and often welcome genealogists as occasional users.
For those with computers and access to the internet, there are two web sites that will be of great assistance. Then make a list of all of the names and double check the spellings. List any and all alternative spellings too. Make a very rough freehand map to see what the groupings are. Then define some sections of your freehand map to show the concentrations or groupings.