Below are some examples of what is available for researchers interested in learning more about the areas in which their ancestors lived. If the list below doesn’t contain what you are looking for, I suggest you try Odden’s Bookmarks, which contains links to more than 10,000 cartographic sites.

A search on your favorite search engine can also turn up some great surprises. Sites with photos, local history, and other goodies can enrich your family history immensely.

Maps
Ancestry.com Map Center
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/reference/maps/main.asp

MapQuest
http://www.mapquest.com

United Nations—Cartographic Section
Maps and Geographic Information Resources
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/english/htmain.htm

LOC Panoramic Maps Collection
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panhome.html

Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection, University of Texas/Austin
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html

1895 U.S. Atlas
http://www.livgenmi.com/1895.htm

National Atlas of Canada
http://atlas.gc.ca/

Gazetteers
USGS Geographic Names Information System
http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html

U.S. Gazetteer
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

Canadian Place-Names
http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/english/cgndb.html

JewishGen ShtetlSeeker
http://www.jewishgen.org/ShtetlSeeker/ (Towns in Central and Eastern Europe)

An Index of German-Polish and Polish-German names of localities in Poland and Russia
http://www.atsnotes.com/other/gerpol.html

IreAtlas Townland Database
http://www.seanruad.com/

Scotland Gazetteer
http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/

Online Directories
European Telephone and Address Listings
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/directories/eurotel/main.htm (Includes listings from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K.)

Canadian Telephone and Address Listings
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/directories/canadatel/main.htm

U.S. Telephone and Address Listings
http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/directories/ustel/main.htm

InfoSpace
http://www.infospace.com/

GTE Yellow Pages
http://yp.superpages.com/

More Information on Using Maps in Research
"Using Maps in Family History Research," by Donn Devine
(Ancestry Magazine, September/October 1998, vol. 16, no. 5)
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/ancmag/754.asp

Ancestry.com Library—Geography Section
http://www.ancestry.com/library/c_128_p_1_archive.asp