Location, Location, Location~Maps

Pacific Ocean~Land's End San Francisco

Cypress Grove

bjmattson

The writings of James Tanner on his blog Genealogy's Star are simply so educational.  Honestly, it is like attending the University of Genealogy and Technical Advancement for free. His work is such an impressive contribution~don't miss it.  Below I have included a part of his post on Maps and links to many many maps both International and State by State.  Also included are many specific map collections.  All the referenced maps and collections are linked.  This is a wonderful resource that I am including on my sidebar as Maps-James Tanner for easy reference.

It is extremely important when doing genealogical research to become very familiar with the location of your research.  Both now and in times past boundaries and jurisdictions change.  Usually when boundaries change the records remain in their original location.  So you may be looking in a state, province, county or municipality that doesn't even contain the records for your time period of interest.

 I have also found lately that it is so important to set the stage for the life that your ancestors lived.  Find out about the topography of the area, the history and commerce and the culture and customs of the day.  That will broaden your base of knowledge and allow you to conjure up possibilities.  Prepare yourself well and your research takes on a life of its own.  Geography and History are such an important part of this work.

"Online Digital Map Collections by State

A New Universal Atlas Containing Maps of the various Empires, Kingdoms, States and Republics Of The World. With a special map of each of the United States, Plans of Cities &c. Comprehended in seventy sheets and forming a series of One Hundred And Seventeen Maps, Plans And Sections ... Philadelphia, Published By S. Augustus Mitchell, N.E. corner of Market & 7th Streets. 1846. Entered ... 1846, by H.N. Burroughs ... Pennsylvania. (title page by) J. Knight Sc.

Although it is evident that there are a huge number of genealogically important source documents that have not made there way online through digitization efforts, maps are an exception to that rule. Every inch of the world's surface is now available in digital format and tens of thousands of historical maps have also been digitized and most are available for free online.

The reason for listing all these digitized map links is twofold; first to produce the links and provide the information, second to illustrate the fact that searching online can be an endlessly productive activity. I am always skeptical of anyone's claims that they have searched all the available records. Every time I returned to this project, I found more links and no, I did not go to any one source and simply copy someone's work. In some cases, I incorporated part of the list from a particular website, but I did not find anyplace where all these websites were listed. I also intend to incorporate all this information in the FamilySearch.org Research Wiki over the next few weeks (months?).

The attention of the genealogical community has been focused on maps available through huge online repositories and portals. Some of the largest of these include the following:

• OldMapsOnline.org
• The David Rumsey Map Collection
• The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
• Maps: Scanned collections online from the British Library
• Trove.nla.gov.au Maps
• The New York Public Library
• The Library of Congress
• USGS Topographical Map Collections including historical topographical maps
• Western Waters Digital Library
• Michigan State University, Using Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online
• Ancestry.com
• Archive.org
• Digital Public Library of America
• United States Census Bureau State and County Map
• Historic Map Works
• Newberry Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
• University of Texas at Austin, Historical Maps Websites
• American Geographical Society - Digital Map Collection
• Ancient World Mapping Center - Maps for Students
• Digtal-Topo-Maps.com
• National Archives, Cartographic and Architectural Records 
• Public Domain Sherpa, Public Domain Maps
• Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University, GIS Data and Maps, United State
• Index to Digital USGS 15 Minute Topographical Maps 
• Map History, Images of early maps on the web
• DigitalStateArchives.com
• University of New Hampshire, Historic USGS Maps of New England and New York
• Rails and Trails, Historic Transportation Sources
• NationalAtlas.gov
• US Forest Service Maps

There are many, many more that could be listed. You can, of course, search any one or all of these large online collections for maps of the individual states of the United States and other places around the world. Please excuse any duplications in links. Sometimes, the link applied to more than one state and sometimes it was difficult to tell if the links went to the same website or not. 

However, in the United States, it is important to note that there are also significant map collections in most states. The following is a listing of some of the map collections available for each state in the United States. I have included some of the larger collections. Please understand that this list is not exhaustive. You may find even more online locations by searching for "state name map collections." Of course, there are huge numbers of paper maps available in libraries and other repositories across the country, but many of those are merely copies of maps already digitized. Have a good time looking at and searching all these maps. 

It is interesting to see that some states have extensive digital map collections and other have practically nothing online. In Arizona, for example, both the state universities have huge map collections but practically none of those are digitized or available online. This also reflects the condition of the rest of the state archives, some have huge collections online such as the State of Washington, others practically nothing. Also, some of these state collections contain maps from all over the United States and world." J. Tanner

Click here to see more of James Tanner's work and to search for individual states maps!"

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2014/05/online-digital-map-collections-by-state.html

And one of my all time favorite things to do is to take a virtual stroll through the places our ancestors have lived as they look today.  Don't forget Google Earth and Google Maps.