Maps, Atlases, & Locality Collections

You might use maps to locate an ancestral home or to find a reference to a town that no longer exists. In "Gazetteers: Identifying Research Localities," Ancestry 12 (4) (July/August 1994), David Thackery notes the following:

"Genealogy is, among other things, an exercise in geography. Successful research often hinges on identifying the locality in which one's ancestors lived. Once we know the locality, we are in a position to consult the records and histories for the area in an effort to piece together the lives of our forebears."

Pinpointing modern place-names can begin with Frank R. Abate, ed., Omni Gazetteer of the United State of America, 11 vols. (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1991). The work is subtitled "Providing Name, Location, and Identification for Nearly 1,500,000 Populated Places and Geographic Features in the Fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Territories." Modern towns can also be sought in Bullinger's Postal and Shipper's Guide to the United States and Canada (Westwood, N.J.: Bullinger's, 1982) or American Places Dictionary: A Guide to 45,000 Populated Places, Natural Features, and Other Places in the U.S., 4 vols. (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1994). The latter details all of the "populated places" in the United States and is arranged by county within state chapters. Every place that is incorporated or has a functioning government -- nearly 40,000 cities, towns, townships, and boroughs -- is contained in the four regional volumes for the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. Volume 4 also contains a national index and entries of interest covering Native American reservations, military bases, and major geographical features.

Maps, atlases, and gazetteers are necessary tools for any genealogist. For a broad introduction to types of maps, see Joel Makower, ed., The Map Catalog: Every Kind of Map and Chart on Earth and Even Some Above It, 2nd ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1992). Genealogists doing much U.S. research should at least own an inexpensive atlas such as the Rand McNally's annual Road Atlas. Locate on maps each place-name in a research problem and relate the place to nearby rivers, mountains, valleys, large towns and cities, ports, and adjoining political jurisdictions.

In one family research project, the ancestor had reportedly moved back and forth between three towns -- one in Missouri, one in Kansas, and one in Nebraska. While some researchers would simply pick a state and begin the chase, a smarter genealogist would start with maps and discover that the three towns lay in adjoining counties where the states came together. In fact, the three towns were within ten miles of each other. Suddenly the problem shifted from a vague project spanning three states and became a neighborhood puzzle that happened to straddle three state lines. No long-distance migrations had occurred.

Maps can be either topographical or historical in nature, though either type can show cultural features such as the town and creek names that are so important to genealogical research. Sheet maps can be more difficult to use than books and manuscripts. They are hard to photocopy because they are large; libraries find them inconvenient to store and retrieve; and their titles often fail to accurately convey their contents. You may quail when faced with a score of maps, each listed in a catalog as "Map of Connecticut;" poring over two hundred pages of bibliography listing pre-1900 Connecticut maps may not narrow your choices much unless the editor supplies descriptive notes on map contents. The map user must accept such frustrations as normal. Major map collections are listed by state and thereunder by city in David A. Cobb, ed., Guide to U.S. Map Resources (Chicago: American Library Association, 1990). Cobb provides a subject index to specialized content, such as collections with many land ownership maps and railroad maps.

Atlases are bound collections of maps. Atlases may also include charts and illustrations, tables, and detailed explanations of the maps featured. The types of atlases vary. They include thematic atlases (those which pertain to a specific event, such as the Civil War) as well as location atlases. A useful reference to the latter is Norman J. W. Thrower, "The County Atlases of the United States," Surveying and Mapping 21 (1961): 365-73. This article identifies parts of the United States for which county atlases are available. The small scale of a road atlas necessarily omits hamlets and most rivers. The Rand McNally Commercial Atlas, found in nearly all U.S. public libraries, supplies a somewhat greater scale. For much larger scales there are the United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps, which show just about every named cluster of houses. Likewise, many states and even counties have published place-name guides. Several national gazetteers that were published in the nineteenth century list many small towns that have since vanished or been renamed. Figure 1-6 is an 1876 map of Allen County, Indiana, from such a gazetteer. To discover the place-name guides and gazetteers that do include smaller communities, use the catalogs of research libraries, including the microfiche/computer catalog of the Family History Library. The catalog is also available at LDS family history centers across the United States. Also see Richard B. Sealock, Bibliography of Place-Names Literature: United States and Canada (Chicago: American Library Association, 1982).

The USGS publishes several series of maps in different scales designed to fit together to cover the entire United States. Statewide indexes to topographic maps may be ordered from:

Topographic Maps, U.S. Geological Survey Map Distribution, P.O. Box 25286, Building 810
Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225

Such maps are described and elaborately illustrated in Morris M. Thompson, Maps for America: Cartographic Products of the U.S. Geological Survey and Others (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1987). Map scales are expressed as proportions, such as 1:24,000, 1:500,000, etc., meaning that the map reproduces a real feature at 1/24,000th or 1/500,000th of its actual size. There are 1:1,000,000 and 1:500,000 single sheets of the states in black and white that show towns, rivers, swamps, railroads, and county lines. The more esoteric maps, especially those in abandoned scales, are listed in Riley Moore Moffat, Map Index to Topographic Quadrangles of the United States, 1882-1940 (Santa Cruz, Calif.: Western Association of Map Libraries, 1986). The USGS also has many specialty maps for metropolitan areas, national parks, battlefields, and historical sites.

The 1:250,000 topographical series in color shows the above-mentioned features and elevations as well, thus revealing mountain and valley systems. Topographical maps of the Appalachian Mountains, for example, can show you how roads, and therefore people, tended to go in the directions of least resistance. The 1:250,000 series covers sizeable regions in a good topographical scale. Fourteen sheets cover Virginia in this scale, but these maps include portions of the neighboring states, also covering most of Maryland and half of Delaware.

Hikers often buy the 1:24,000 maps for their large-scale topographical features. Genealogists drawing land-grant tracts find this to be the best scale. Approximately eight hundred sheets cover Virginia in 1:24,000.

The USGS maps are authoritative and inexpensive. The USGS has published two booklets for each state that summarize the topographic maps available: Index to Topographic and Other Map Coverage and Catalog of Topographic and Other Published Maps. These booklets are (as of this writing) free upon request. Write to:

Map Distribution, U.S. Geological Survey
Box 25286, Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225

You can buy maps in person at the USGS's field offices -- called Earth Science Information Centers -- currently located in Alaska (Anchorage), California (Los Angeles, Menlo Park, and San Francisco), Colorado (Denver), Mississippi (Stennis Space Center), Missouri (Rolla), South Dakota (Sioux Falls), Utah (Salt Lake City), Virginia (Reston), Washington (Spokane), and Washington, D.C.

The USGS has a National Cartographic Information Center, 507 National Center, Reston, VA 22092; (800) USA-MAPS. This center can assist you with more exotic items, such as aerial photographs or color separations of topographical maps, which can be used for reproducing maps in a book you may plan to publish. (Such technical matters are of no concern to most genealogists, but a few may benefit.)

Microfilm copies of out-of-print USGS topographic map series can be purchased. These are black-and-white microfilms of the 1:24,000 series (and occasionally other scales), with each state's maps in alphabetical order by the names of the sheets. (The USGS topographic collection was microfilmed state by state, then two additional, more recent, issues were microfilmed, so check the title listings in three places for a particular state.) For a genealogist who expects to do very extensive research in a particular state, or who perhaps specializes in professional work in one state, these reels are much less expensive and far easier to store than a full set of 1:24,000 topographical sheets of the state. Such microfilms are available at some libraries, of course, including the Family History Library, which has microfilms for every state.

Historical maps are not so uniform or easily described as topographical maps, nor can they be so conveniently purchased. "Historical" refers both to modern maps that present historical information, such as colonial roads, migration routes, former county boundaries, and land-grant bounds; and to old maps valuable for their outdated information, such as nineteenth-century county and land ownership maps and property tax maps. The surest way to see the best maps for an area is to visit a major research library specializing in that area.

Anyone who enjoys keeping current on geography and cartography publications can do so by reading the quarterly Bulletin of the Special Libraries Association, Geography and Map Division.

An estimated 2 million maps in the National Archives are briefly described in the Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives (Washington, D.C.: National Archives Trust Fund, 1982). If you want a copy of a particular old map, inquire of the Cartographic and Architectural Branch (NNSC), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. Also, the Library of Congress has a vast map collection in its Geography and Map Division, from which you can obtain reproductions.