A personal genealogy project turned into a public mission for amateur genealogist Violet Covert.

The Butler resident spent close to two years transforming an 1858 map of Butler County into book form.

"(The map) was about 5 foot by 5 foot. People had folded it over and over (to fit on the photocopy machine). I was guilty of making a copy that way myself," said Covert, of Butler.

This copy of the nearly 150-year-old map, housed in the Weir Genealogy Room at the Butler Public Library, was coming apart at the seams.

"I spoke with Luanne Eisler at the library and I said, 'How long is this map going to last?'"

Since the original map was very large, most prints, considering their size and fragility, are hanging on walls somewhere, according to Eisler, who works as a genealogist at the library.

"You really have to be eye level to read the names on the map. You'd have to climb up on top of a ladder to see some of the northern parts of the county," she noted.

"Someone along the line had access to one of those original maps and made Xerox copies of sections of the original map, and they cut them up and taped them together (to make a whole map) and rolled it up."

With the accessible copy falling apart, Eisler said Covert "accepted the challenge" to rectify the situation.

Thus began the journey from preservation idea to bound book. Covert started out with two townships, Adams and Allegheny. "I thought I'd add townships as I finished them," Covert said.

"Luanne said, 'Vi, this will get stolen (someone else taking the credit) in a minute. You have to publish it.'"

After about 20 months, Covert finished the trek. "It was an intense amount of work, 40 to 50 hours a week when I was really at it," she said.

She worked with Mechling Bookbindery in Chicora to bring the book to the public.

There were 33 townships in the county in 1858. Each has a two-page spread of maps. "On the right is the old map; on the left is the new one with all the highways and byways," Covert noted.

Each township has four pages total, including a brief historical description, lists of cemeteries, schools and tradesmen employed there, and an index of property owners' names.

"The state of Pennsylvania required counties to put together a list of property owners, according to what I read, just so they could make an accurate state map," Covert said.

Townships were divided up, she surmised, because the pioneers didn't want their children to have to walk more than a couple of miles to school, so townships were about five square miles.

She painstakingly printed out the names on her computer and pasted each one where it belonged on the maps.

"It is not meant to be a history book," Covert said. "It is what it says: a map."

The book includes a few other notes as well, including histories of the county and courthouse, points of interest and the locations of the 11 known original prints of the 1858 map, one acquired in the last year by the library.

"The great thing about this book is you can read it in your easy chair or you can take it with you on a trip," Covert said.

"This really is a super resource for historians and genealogists because the original maps are so unique and unusual," Eisler said.

"Even if you could go to the courthouse or Lawyer's Abstract Co., it would be too hard to use. This book people can pull off their library shelf and do research at their own pace."

Now that the book is out and a revised second edition correcting a couple of omissions is on the way, Covert, 69, spends her time speaking to community groups about history. She has engagements scheduled with Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, the Shriners' luncheon club and Christian Women's clubs. Friends of the Library and the Slippery Rock Heritage Association also have expressed interest in having her speak to their groups.

Her presentation "Moving Day 1800" also features other information.

"I have a diary of Sally Hastings when she moved west to Washington County," Covert said.

She didn't find any letters or diaries during her research of the Covert family, who were involved in the history of the southern part of Butler County, she said.

"I wanted something to get my kids minds on the importance of history." She and her husband, Richard, have three children and he has one from a previous marriage. She has five grandchildren.

The work to preserve the 1858 map of Butler County and the subsequent speaking engagements have taken a great deal of time, but Covert said she's enjoyed it.

"It's been a great retirement thing to do."

<B>WHAT:</B> "Map of Butler County 1858"<B>WHO:</B> By Violet M. Covert<B>COST:</B> $21.95 for softcover, $34.95 for hardback<B>INFORMATION:</B> Write to P.O. Box 305, Butler, PA 16003