Order or purchase a USGS topographical map for the quadrant where you live. A quadrant map is larger than the common topographical maps that are sold at Army-Navy and hardware stores, because it covers one whole degree of latitude. For this exercise, the quadrangle map is recommended because it will give you a good sense of how much area one degree of latitude covers.These maps can be ordered directly from the USGS at this site (http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/b2c/display/%28xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_50_2&uiarea=2&ctype=areaDetails&carea=0000000009%29/.do), which is also listed below in the References section.
Unroll the map and appreciate the fact that you are looking at one degree of latitude, which covers approximately 70 miles. Take special note that this map is wider than it is high with overall dimensions being 36 X 22 inches. After you get your bearings, see if you can find the town where you live. To determine the degree of latitude all you have to do is to read the general information provided under the heading, but to locate minutes, a closer examination of the map is necessary.
Take note of the red grid lines that occur evenly across the map. Locate the red line just below the town where you live to obtain the minute reading. Follow the red line to either edge of the map, where you will find the numerical value for the minutes of latitude.
Purchase a 7.5-minute map for the immediate area where you live. Keep in mine that just within the one quadrant map that you used in steps 1 & 2, you will find 128 different quadrants. Each map is about twice as tall as it is wide and contains 7.5 degrees of both latitude and longitude.
Locate the house or street where you live. Unless your home is very new, it is probably on the map.
Look at the grids to determine the seconds of latitude. Since your map is 7.5 minutes in height, it will contain 450 seconds of latitude. In this case the grid system does not mark every second, but rather each black line corresponds to a set value that is listed on the side. To get the exact second you will need to use a ruler to divide the distance between the two horizontal black lines, where you home lies and then extrapolate the percentage into seconds. Once this is done you can list your location in degrees, minutes (') and seconds (").
