Digital Branch: Digital Map Collections for Genealogy: Resources

Overview - What are Maps and How are they Used?

Researching your ancestors is a good hobby that offers lots of twists and turns. Most of us have a general idea of where we are from, or have lived in the past. But at some point all of us will find that we need to look at a map to better understand some fact that we found about our ancestor. It may have something to do with a cemetery, or what sort of building they lived in, what street, city, state, country, maybe even what the battlefield looked like that they lost their lives in. There are many types of historical maps out there and this resource guide provides good options to start with. If you would like to see other collections of historical maps, be sure to check-out our program guide "Digital Maps for the Modern Time Traveler." Happy trails!

Using Maps for Genealogy Research, Part 1: Finding Records
A wonderful guide from the staff of the New York Public Library about the types of maps you can use to locate ancestors. " Historical maps can show us where our ancestors lived at a particular point in time. Locating a correct historical address helps researchers find information about people, and a map can confirm that a place existed and can verify information found in other records." This is the first of a 5-part, linked series that includes: fire insurance maps; topographical maps, country maps, and atlases; place of origin and immigration stories; and gazetteers.
FamilySearch.org - Wiki: Maps
FamilySearch's Wiki is a research library in and of itself. In their Maps section, you will learn about how to use maps in your family research. You will also learn about different types, and even better - be able to link to those other resources.
Genealogy 101: Using Maps for Family History Research
Haven’t thought of using maps before, or not sure what types of maps can help your research? Maps are an important tool in family history research! Maps help you follow migration patterns, learn more about the place your ancestor lived, determine the location of cities that no longer exist, show changes in county boundaries, and verify land your ancestor owned.
Asking for Directions: How to Read Maps as Historical Texts
What, precisely, is a map? And, more important, what work do maps do? Maps are visualizations of space or spatial relationships. When looking at a map, therefore, it is always smart to ask “Who made it?” “Why did they make it?” and “How did they make it?” These are also some of the same questions historians ask when they analyze sources other than maps and are a useful start for critical thinking about any media, historical or contemporary.
Types of Maps: Topographic, Political, Climate, and More
The field of geography relies on many different types of maps in order to study the features of the earth. Simply defined, maps are pictures of the Earth's surface. General reference maps document landforms, national boundaries, bodies of water, the locations of cities and so on.

Digital Historical Map Collections

Old Maps Online
A great place to start, Old Maps Online is a portal that allows the user to search geographically for historical maps housed via some of the largest online map collections. OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400.000 maps.
Library of Congress: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
This Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company. They were designed to help fire insurance agents determine the degree of damage to a property and show accurate information to help them determine risks and establish premiums. The maps included street names, property boundaries and lot lines, and house and block numbers.
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center (Boston Public Library)
This is one of the most significant digital collections of any North American map library. We encourage all kinds of research and exploration into our collections through digital access. Be sure to check-out their AtlasScope project referred to in the "Boundaries" section of this guide. The Boston Public Library also has tremendous resources available via their Library Guides for Genealogy, available on their website.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
The David Rumsey Map Collection Database has over 100,000 maps and related images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 21st century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and the World. The physical map collection is housed in the David Rumsey Map Center at the Stanford University Library.
Library of Congress Map Collections
The American Memory Digital Collections of the Library of Congress are extensive. Digital Maps are a huge part of the collection. This link will take you to "Maps in Collections." Locate Railroad Maps, Military Maps, Cities and Towns Maps, and more. You can also search by many other filters.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (PCL 1.306) is a general collection of more than 250,000 maps covering all areas of the world. 70,000 of these map images are also available online. Not only can you view the images of many of these maps, you can also link to other historical map collections through a variety of filters. They have also just added the Texas GeoData Portal.
United States Military Academy West Point
The U.S. Military Academy Library maintains extensive documentation of the history of West Point, the U.S. Military Academy, and Academy alumni in its Special Collections and Archives. These rich historical collections include extensive book, manuscript, and photograph holdings among other formats.

Boundary Changes, Land Records, and Other Map Viewing Resources

What Could Go Wrong: 150 Years Ago Brooklyn Renumbered All it's Streets: It was a Disaster
Many are the times we remember our ancestors living in a particular place; right down to the street and house number. But over time those things can change. This online exhibit takes your through the story of what happened. Something like this helps give you the extra sense that there may be another place to look.
Randy Majors Research Hub
Offers free "Ancestor/Historical" tools that include an interactive Historical US County Boundary Maps tool. This particular tool lets you see the boundary of a county during the time your ancestor lived there. If you are searching in a town, that town may have changed counties due to growth. That's why changes to the county boundaries can be important to search.
Newberry Library: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries successfully completed the project of documenting boundary changes in all 50 states in June 2010. The national data files and animations were contributed in 2012. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries is meant to be a resource for people seeking records of past events, and people trying to analyze, interpret and display county-based historical data like returns of elections and censuses, and for people working on state and local history projects.
Bureau of Land Management: US Dept. of the Interior
We provide live access to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States, including image access to more than five million Federal land title records issued between 1788 and the present. We also have images of survey plats and field notes, land status records, and control document index records.
Atlascope (For the Boston Metro Area)
Atlascope is a tool for exploring historic urban maps in metropolitan Boston and telling stories about how places have changed over time. It is a project of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library.
NYPL Map Warper (For New York City area)
he NYPL Map Warper is a tool for digitally aligning ("rectifying") historical maps from the NYPL's collections to match today's precise maps. Visitors can browse already rectified maps or assist the NYPL by aligning a map.
Old Providence: A New Virtual Resource (For Providence, RI area)
Old Providence is a project by Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective. This free site you can explore the city by street address, building name, or clicking markers on the maps. Click any marker on the map and it opens to a new window so that you can see the building that once stood on the site or the building that still stands on the site. Users can discover historical and architectural facts by reading the captions that accompany each image. Anyone can add additional information to an image marker in the box in the marker window.
Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network
The purpose of the Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network is to gather geographic materials useful for the study of historic Philadelphia and its region. This site contains thousands of old maps, property atlases, city directories, industrial site surveys, and other items documenting the history and development of the city from the 1600s through today.
A Vision of Britain Through Time
A vision of Britain from 1801 to now.
Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions. Also includes census, travel writing, and statistical atlases.
Texas GeoData Portal (Texas and Many Other Locations)
Explore over 30,000 geospatial datasets from many shared University collections for researchers, and the general public. Locate a wide variety of datasets including georeferenced scanned maps from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, vector datasets developed from collections in the Alexander Architectural Archives, geospatial data from the Benson Latin American Collection, and more.

Use Google Earth to Create Your Own Family History Map ***

Google Earth for Genealogy, Part 1: Putting Your Ancestors on the Map
Maps and mapping software have long been under-utilized as tools for family history research, but can be incredibly useful resources for genealogists of all skill levels. The first part will introduce the technology and suggest ways to add your own family history information to a map.
Google Earth for Genealogy, Part 2: Adding Historical Maps & Data
Google Earth’s default map interface displays a modern, satellite image of the earth and its contemporary locations. Thanks to a process called georeferencing, we can download digitized historical maps and import them into Google Earth. If a digital map has been georeferenced, that means it’s been adjusted to fit precisely over a modern map of the earth.
Mapping Your Ancestry With Google Maps
Google Maps makes it easy to locate places, including small towns, libraries, cemeteries, and churches. Google Maps draws its locations from current map and business listings. There are three map types offered within Google Maps - street maps, satellite maps, and a hybrid map that combines satellite imagery with an overlay of streets, city names, and landmarks.
Art Challenge: Make Your Own Amazing Maps
*** And because I can't resist including something from AtlasObscurra! "Think about, the place you want to map—especially within the new limits we’re all living under. It could be your home, the route you take on a daily walk, the world you see from your window. Then imagine the form you want it to take. And then grab what you have on hand and make a representation of your world."

Digital Map Collections for Genealogy

Overview - What are Maps and How are they Used?

Digital Historical Map Collections

Boundary Changes, Land Records, and Other Map Viewing Resources

Use Google Earth to Create Your Own Family History Map ***

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