Illinois Maps

Celebrate Illinois' 200th birthday with some very interesting maps! See how the state has changed with Illinois: Mapping the Prairie State Through History. 

This book includes maps from the 1670s to the present as well as essays about different aspects of Illinois history. The maps record boundary changes, detail the growth of towns (both large and small), and chart railroad and industrial expansion in the state.

Maps make great resources for family historians too. Trace your ancestors with Family Maps of Cook County, Illinois compiled by Gregory A. Boyd.

If you family was an early settler in the area, they may have received a land patent. Boyd gives you three maps: a land patent map, a current (ca 2006) road map, and a historical map which lists cemeteries, railroads, and waterways. Look for you family in the surname index or search the map of your ancestors town and neighborhood to find family names.

While land patent maps sound confusing, they're easy to use. For example, here you see a road map of Glenview. The library would be located in box 35.

And here is the land patent map. You can see that Edwin Clark received a patent for the land the library currently sits on in 1840. 

Find your ancestors' original homestead or see who originally owned your current property. Maps can add lots of context to our family histories.

And for more historical maps, check out the map case in the Genealogy & Local History Room.

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

County boundaries have changed a lot during this nation's history. When searching for county-level records (birth, marriage, and death records) or when browsing census data, it's important to know which county your ancestor lived in. The Newberry has a great site that can help pinpoint what county your ancestor was living in during a specific period of time. The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries contains interactive maps and county histories and is a great resource for US genealogy research.

Important Tip from Genealogy Tip of the Day

Genealogy Tip of the Day: Do You Work Without Maps?: When you get all "into" researching a person or family in an area that is unfamiliar to you, do you stop and take the time to find maps of the areas where the people of interest live? It is important to know county, state, and other boundaries and the relative proximity of the places where you think people live. It's even more imperative in a "new" area where the geography may be unknown to you.

Don't assume you "know" the geography "good enough" or that the states are small enough that it doesn't matter. Look at maps. Analyze locations. Determine how far apart different residences for your ancestor are.

Don't get so caught up in the search that you lose sight of the geography in the process.

Follow Genealogy Tip of the Day for more great tips!

Ordnance Survey Ireland

Here is information shared by Brian Mitchell of the Derry Genealogy Centre:

"View, free of charge, the historic 19th-century mapping archive of Ordnance Survey Ireland.

Simply pan across the map, select map series (such as Historic 6", Historic 6" B&W or Historic 25") and zoom in to view the townland in greater detail. Historic 6" refers to 6-inch mapping series, both color and greyscale, of 1837-1842, and Historic 25" to 25 inch mapping series, greyscale, of 1888-1913."

(Thank You to Genealogical Publishing Company)

Maps for Irish Research

A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland / by Brian Mitchell
R911.415 MIT GENEALOGY

This book maps, by county, Ireland's network of civil parishes (Church of Ireland parishes normally conform to the civil parish), Roman Catholic parishes and, for the nine northern counties of Ulster, its network of Presbyterian congregations.

(Thank You to Genealogical Publishing Co.)

Irish Place Names

To gain insight into the economic and social landscape of 19th-century Ireland you can consult A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837, by Samuel Lewis.

Arranged in alphabetical order by place, this dictionary provides an overview of the geography and history of Ireland's villages, parishes and towns, as they existed at the time of publication (1837).

(Thank You to Genealogical Publishing Co.)

Standard Finder

Family Search Labs Standard Finder is a standardized location database that provides access to standardized information for names, locations, and dates, and is designed to to help you determine exact spellings

Results will include place name variants, place type, place time period, standard text, culture, iso-code, geo-code (latitude and longitude) and an identification number for the place name.

Standard Finder can be of assistance in determining proper spellings of locations, checking if locations exist as well as determining alternate name spellings/variants to expand research.

It is fascinating to click on a result, and view the ancestral place on a map along with physical features and other nearby places.

1940 Glenview Census Maps

Steve Morse's website helps you identify an enumeration district (E.D.) where your ancestors lived.  This will enable you to browse the E.D. in search of people you cannot find by searching the census on Ancestry or Heritage Quest.

Steve's website  lets you view 1940 enumeration district maps in one step.

 Here is an old map of Glenview.  Click on the map to enlarge it.

World Names

In what locations throughout the world does your surname occur? to which countries did your ancestors emigrate and settle down?

Search for a surname to view its map and statistics on PublicProfiler/WorldNames.

Once you know where those surnames occur, you have more options for tracing your heritage.

Type a surname into the search box, and click the search button (it doesnot work as well if you press the enter button.) The color coded map will inidcate location of greatest occurrence; and if you click on that location, you will see an expanded map showing name distribution in greater detail.

Phonebooks for those countries, or social networking genealogy websites, will put you in touch with your distant cousins.

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries

The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries provides interactive maps of all states, for the benefit of researchers in the areas of history, demography, economics, genealogy, geography, law, and politics.

Map guide to the U.S. federal censuses, 1790-1920

Soon it will be census time again.

Here is a Clearfield review of a great book about the U.S. Census that is owned by the Glenview Public Library. You can see it at R911.73 THO GENEALOGY

Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Censuses, 1790-1920 by William Thorndale and William dollarhide.

Genealogical research in U.S. censuses begins with identifying correct county jurisdictions to assist in this identification, the map Guide shows all U.S. county boundaries from 1790 to 1920. On each of the nearly 400 maps the old county lines are superimposed over the modern ones to highlight the boundary changes at ten-year intervals. Accompanying each map are explanations of boundary changes, notes about the census, tocality finding keys. In addition, there are inset maps which clarify territorial lines, a state-by-state bibliography of sources, an appendix outlining pitfalls in mapping county boundaries. Finally, there is an index which lists all present day counties, plus nearly all defunct counties or counties later renamed-the most complete list of American counties ever published.

Here is a fuller review at the publisher's web site.

The New York Times' Immigration Explorer shows historic immigration patterns in the United States. You can see where different ethnic groups settled. The interactive map is an excellent use of aggregate data from U.S. Census and geographic information systems.