Hi Sally
My ancestors are from Great Hormead also and although I am fairly local and have driven through it I have never stopped and gone a wandering. Many of our little East Herts villages are however made up of many smaller hamlets. Dont know where you are in this wide world, but HALS have a good selection of large scale maps. I recently looked at the 1878 1st edition OS map for Furneux Pelham which was most useful.
If your ancestors go back to around the 1840s at Great Hormead, there is also likely to be a tithe map. This is most helpful as it is a large map with plot numbers, these plot numbers are then shown on an index listing owner and occupier. The only drawback is that if there were two families in one household it is likely to only give one name. It may then be possible using this map to track more precisely the location of an ancestor by comparing it with the 41 census if you can find a marker to track the enumerators steps. These tithe maps are in the archive room though so you would need to draw or trace the map.
But, first, of course, you need to get back further than the 1880s. Good luck.
Denise
