I'm kinda in the same boat.
Just started playing MM1 for the first time and so far i managed to map most of the first town.
I'm not seeing any lv1 cleric or sorceror spells to help with mapping. Maybe there are higher level spels to do what you mentioned, but i haven't looked into them yet to be honest.
There are maps on the cluebooks and it's relatively easy to spot where you start but that kinda spoils the fun and i'm not using them.
So i'm using custom paper with 32x32 squares and i started mapping at the center of the paper. That way i have enough room in all directions even if the starting place happens to be on a map's edge and so far it's working pretty good. Once you have most of the place mapped out figuring out the x,y coordinates it's easy.
Maybe there's an easyer way to do things, i dunno.
Edit: Scrap that.
I was flat out wrong. I just started looking to the spells in more detail and actually there's a lv1 sorceror spell that gives you all the required information for an easyer mapping. It's spell #7 - Location and now i really wish i had looked at the spells descriptions with more attention before starting my mapping.
I just tried it and It tells you the Map sector you're in, X,Y coordinates, dirction you're facing, etc, etc, so there you go.
Post edited May 30, 2010 by Namur