Place Your Ancestors!

Atlases, Maps, Gazetteers, GPS

Books, software, tapes etc.

Walking With Your Ancestors: A Genealogists Guide to Using Maps and Geography. Family Tree Books (find in a library)

Handybook for Genealogists (10th or 11th edition) and/or Ancestry's Redbook (you'll want the 3rd edition) each includes a map for each state and selected countries that show the county boundaries. The newer editions also show the touching counties in surrounding states.

When working with U.S. census records you will want to use Dollarhide's Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, which shows the boundary changes for each county. When working with early migrations within the U.S, you will want to work with his Map Guide to Early Migration Routes 1735-1815.

The Goldbug has several map products, as well as Animap Plus/ Site Finder, a software program that locates places and shows county boundary changes over the years.

Arphax is creating township maps, with names of first purchasers. They will accept requests for specific counties.

 

Web Sources

Gazetteers

A gazetteer is a listing of place names... it helps you locate a place if you only know the name, but have no idea where it is. It is a handy reference book to have on hand, but there are also gazetteers online.

Often, however, you will want a gazetteer that was published long ago because it will, include names of places that are no longer used. Some gazetteers have phonetic variations in the spelling of names; if not, you will need to try under a variety of spellings, as the one you have in hand may not be correct. A few historical gazetters are available online

Rootsweb provides a town, county, state finder.
And try TownUSA, which will find modern day towns or cities, but not townships.

And, of course... the Geographic Names and Information System provides data on geographic features (including cemeteries, rivers etc. )for the U.S. and Territories.

Information about foreign geographic features is available at GeoNet Names Server.

You can get a quick summary of information and maps world wide at the NYT/Mirian-Webster Geography site.

Sanborn Maps

Sanborn Maps exist for about 12,000 cities and towns. They were created starting in 1867 for fires insurance underwriters as a means of assessing fire risks; towards that end, they show information about the buildings in a given area. Because building type was shown by color coding (yellow for frame, blue for stone, red for brick...) They are online, but you must be affiliated with an organization that subscribes. (The University of Michigan Library does !)

The online version is difficult to navigate and the maps themselves require study to understand. You must use a key (color key) to make sense of the drawings. They do not contain names, only addresses... but you can often get that from a city directory, census or some other source. The Library of Congress offers a guide to using Sanborn maps (and an inventory of what they own).

Historical Maps

Panoramic, or " bird's-eye view" maps were popular in the late 19th, early 20th century. An online collection of panoramic maps is available at the American Memory Project. (You have to read the instructions to zoom in enough to get a good image)

There are some map collections available online, but I am rarely able to bring up a good, viewable copy to work with. Maybe it's me. I use them to find out what maps exist and if one looks good, I can often order a copy. Or see if I can find a copy at the University of Michigan Library. Map Library .

  • The Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection Online contains digital copies of maps from all over the world, including many historical maps. U.S. Historical maps are arranged by city. This site also contains a list of links to other historical maps on the web.
  • The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection contains a great number of historical maps. I found it difficult to navigate until I discovered that you must first select a browser. Once you do that you can more easily locate maps of a specific area. I also found it difficult to view maps until I realized that when magnifying a map you must click on the portion you wish to see magnified. Once an image is larger, there is no way to navigate from one portion to the other. On the whole I found it hard to use this map collection.
  • Images from the 1895 U.S. Atlas have been scanned and are available online. (Scroll down to select the state you want; then choose county)
  • University of Alabama Historical Map Archives -- again, I could not get a map image large enough and clear enough to be useful, but I can find out about maps that exist and see if I can find them in the map library or purchase them.
  • Newberry Library. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
    • You will have to take some time playing with it to see what is available.
    • When viewing an interactive map, notice the HELP button, upper right; you may end up needing to use it.
    • You can also download files.

Vendors

 

Back to Bobbie's Genealogy Classrom

This page last updated June 2, 2011