Genealogy & Family Research: Maps

The Atlas of Historical County Boundaries successfully completed the project of documenting boundary changes in all 50 states in June 2010. The national data files and animations were contributed in 2012.

Access to Federal land conveyance records for the Public Land States, including image access to more than five million Federal land title records issued between 1788 and the present. We also have images of survey plats and field notes, land status records, and control document index records. Due to organization of documents in the GLO collection, this site does not currently contain every Federal title record issued for the Public Land States.

The winner of a Webby award for best nonprofit website, this free site (with accompanying smartphone apps) from Britain-based We Are What We Do combines geography and history with help from more than 55,000 users and the collections of 1,692 institutions. Historical image uploads get plotted on Google maps, which you can use to compare old photos with street views showing how the same locations look today.

The NYPL Map Warper is a tool for digitally aligning ("rectifying") historical maps from the NYPL's collections to match today's precise maps. Visitors can browse already rectified maps or assist the NYPL by aligning a map.

This free site maps as many generations as you specify, including the birthplaces of each individual, and animates their migrations. It only works with trees in FamilySearch,

The National Atlas and Geographic Names Information System will find any place, however obscure, and allow it to be plotted on the customizable National Map or find it in the growing Historical Topographic Map Collection.

This webpage ties historical photographs to Google Maps to allow you to see how locations appeared in the past.