Time Dimensional Maps

Maps are very good at showing a given place at a given time. Modern interactive maps allow easy exploration of two or three dimensions of the "snapshot". However, they don't do a very good job of showing time.

I would like to be able to visualize my ancestors and how they interacted and participated in historical events. A few issues come up with this:
1) How do you find the places?
Modern map companies do a great job of geocoding almost any address to its appropriate latitude and longitude. Past addresses are much more of a challenge. Using a database of modern names can probably get a lot of places (Boston is still Boston.) However, other place names have changed (where is Prussia?) Or even more confusing, some names may refer to something different today.
Some of this is somewhat mitigated by lack of detailed data as you travel back in history. (You may just have a county or even just a country.)
Some other data exists with Township/Section/Range descriptions. This could theoretically be converted to map locations, but takes a little work.
2) How do you represent time on a map?
You could color code different points to represent different time periods (years, decades, centuries or whatever is appropriate.) This allows for visualizing 'neighbors' in time, and associating them with events. (The person living in Boston in the 17th century probably didn't participate in the American Revolution...)
Another possibility is tracks. You could display the movement of individual people across time. With ancestry, there is also a clear linkage. This could provide a picture of migration.
With all of these approaches, the data representation could change as zoom level is changed, thus giving it an uncluttered approach.

With any approach, an important part is ease of use. Importing gedcom files would be a bare minimum approach. It could also be interesting to parse census data to show specific household migration (though this would be much more involved.) Getting township/section/range data on the map should also be automatic. A public location repository would also be useful. (Once you figure out where a location is in 1650, others should be able to use it.)