Maps & Mapping Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians

If you are a regular Wheaton Wood blog post follower you will know I love maps. For my genealogy class I compiled some of my favorite Map resources below. In general I use out of copyright maps and those that are as close to the time frame as when my ancestors lived in a location as I can find. This is an active post, meaning I may add to it from time to time. You may wish to bookmark it for future reference.

HINT: Google a library or an archive for the specific area you are researching—from a town to a country. Search archives or museums in the county, state or country of interest for maps. For instance the Google Search:

“Archive North Carolina maps” yields these top hits:

• North Carolina State Archives Maps
• North Carolina Maps Home at the University of Chapel Hill

HINT TWO: Do not make the mistake of only looking in the place you think a map might be located. For instance below you will find the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection located at the University of Texas. It includes this large list of maps pertaining to Mexico.

HINT THREE: Check out Etsy and Ebay for old maps and atlases.

GENERAL & USA

• Google & My Maps (must have a Google account) My maps is a Google product that allows you to drop pins and create migration routes. Measure areas and much more. Here’s a short Youtube video on My Maps to get you started. But you can look for more YouTube videos with greater depth.

• David Rumsey’s Historical Maps Collection – Probably my favorite large map repository. With two features I love. Geo-referencing which allows you to overlay an old map onto a current map. And the new feature “Text on Maps” which allows you to search for a place on a map. Each of those little images sows the term “Alamance” on a map. Hovering over any of the images tells you more about the map. Clicking will take you write to that spot on the map. If you do a surname search this takes you to towns and places with that name but it also includes some individual names on Plat Maps from County Atlases. This will become a more and more powerful tool no doubt. Give it a try it is awesome! It is available by Using the down error in the corner of the search box. Make sure you are in “Text on Maps.”

• Old Maps Online Collection 400,000 maps for library, university, and national institutions. Each map links to the original website that houses it.
• Library Of Congress Map Collection
• Library of Congress Sanborn Collection These are very detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally created for fire insurance companies to assess liability.
• Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center
• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
• Harvard Map Collection
• NY Public Library Digital Collection

TOPOGRAPHICAL

• USGS Topographic Maps
• My Topo Maps $

US LAND PATENTS & PLATS

• US Dept of Land Management provides access to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States, between 1788 and the present. Amazing!
• US Place names The U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) was created in 1890 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government.

SURNAME DISTRIBUTION MAPS

• Forebears
• Surname Distribution Maps from Family Search
• Surname Maps of Ireland and Scotland

WORLD

Use Family Search for maps. Go to Family Search Catalog. Then search by place and look for Maps in results list.

United Kingdom

• National Library of Scotland for all UK maps
• UK Maps Geograph Photos by location across the UK
• Family Search Historic UK Map Collection
• England in 1086 Domesday Map

Some Others

• Canada Archives Maps
• Germany Geograph Photos across Germany by location
• European Maps
• Norwegian Maps
• Swedish Maps

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