Old maps can help your research

Remember the old expression “riding shotgun” to describe someone holding a map while sitting in the front passenger seat and telling the driver where to turn?

If you’re taking a trip this summer, you know that era is long gone, thanks to onboard computerized directional systems.

If you’re a genealogist, though, things are different. Maps are still with us, and they are vital.

Appropriately for this time of year when Americans are traveling, let’s look at the kinds of maps you need to accomplish your research goals, and then see where to find them.

Historical Maps: This is a huge category of basic maps for towns, states, provinces and nations going back as far as you can find them. A genealogist needs access to older as well as newer maps dating from the days and origins of the ancestors being researched.

Over the centuries (even just over the decades), borders shift and geographical place names change, as do spellings. Whether you are dealing with a foreign province or an American county, you have to find out what the landscape was in your ancestors’ time abroad and in earlier America if you are going to track their homes and travels correctly.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Sanborn company prepared maps of thousands of American communities. These urban maps offered rough sketches of buildings and streets, with addresses.

The maps are heavy on commercial and industrial buildings, because they were meant to give insurance companies basic information about the risk of fires. But you will find a lot of private homes and apartments. The emphasis is on urban areas, and most were updated every few decades.

Bird’s Eye View Maps: These maps are painstakingly drawn sketches of entire American communities, showing streets and buildings as if viewed from the air. They tend to be very accurate in reproducing the buildings, even down to the style of windows.

The great era of the bird’s eye view map was the late 1800s and early 1900s. Municipal governments and chambers of commerce often ordered them made and then publicized them as a means of advertising their communities to companies looking for good, populous places to locate.

Now, where do you find all these maps? Public libraries and historical and genealogical societies can have current maps as well as historic ones going way back into the past. History books are good sources as well. Remember, you will generally be best off with older maps.

There are other sources for historic maps. Take a look at Cyndi’s List for them. Also, don’t forget to check out the numerous American and worldwide Genweb sites, which are generally based on counties and other administrative divisions.

“Family Tree Magazine” features materials on states and nations on a rotating basis. Their specialized sections often include maps of nations and other political divisions. The current issue, which focuses on Italy, offers two national maps and a glossary of geographic terms. “Plus” members get access to past articles. Go to www.familytreemagazine.com.

The Sanborn maps can be found in various places. It’s best to search online for them by name and see what institutions have collected them and put them on the website. Here in Pennsylvania, the Penn State University Library system has them for the entire state.

Bird’s eye view maps can often be found in libraries and historical societies. I’ve also seen them available for purchase. Search by name of town or city. Besides being informative, they make nice wall decorations.

Tom Mooney is a Times Leader history and genealogy writer. Reach him at tommooney42@gmail.com.