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Using Maps in Your Research


Maps as a tool in family history are generally regarded as little more than a curiosity. The truth is they can offer a wide variety of cultural and environmental detail that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

As a genealogical tool, maps can offer an appreciation of a locality that is unrivalled in any other form of document. Family history aside, they are also interesting in their own right, and as a focus of interest for those exploring local and social history.

Although early examples of English maps exist, it was not until the 1570s that any degree of accuracy was employed in their production. Christopher Saxton drew up maps of all the counties of England and Wales using the developing cartographic skills of measurement by triangulation, observation and surveying. The resulting atlas became a template for future map-makers and was not really succeeded until the advances of the Ordnance Survey in the 19th Century.

The Ordnance Survey was founded in 1791 and became an authority through the Ordnance Survey Act of 1841. Its roots lay in the Napoleonic Wars when the military required accurate maps of southern England for defensive purposes. As their usefulness became apparent, so the areas of land covered began to take in the growing industrial centres and expanding cities. They gradually developed to show a complex array of data from buildings and roads to sites of antiquity and geological formations.

The Victorian period saw rapid improvements being made in cartography. Civil engineers used maps for town planning purposes, they were utilised in plotting the new network of railway links not forgetting to mention land and water navigation. The biggest problem in the development of the Ordnance Survey during the 1820s - 40s was deciding upon a universal scale. Eventually a series of standard scales was adopted following the so-called Battle of the Scales. Apart from the change in Imperial to Metric measurements, the scales remain much the same today.

Innovations during the First World War saw the beginnings of the National Grid. The `British Grid System' began in 1919 providing an easy system of cross-referencing to pinpoint precise locations on maps. As time passed, the grids were broken down further. Today it is possible to pinpoint a mapped object to within a square metre anywhere in the British Isles.

So far as the family historian is concerned, maps can provide a plethora of detail upon which we can build our ancestors lives. Whether their origins were urban or rural, maps offer a rich background of environmental information. They can show not only the buildings in which our relatives lived but the landscape and communities around them too. A dwelling on a country estate may provide important clues to status and occupation. A city may offer clues on local industry, religious denomination, wealth, sanitary conditions and more besides. If they lived in a coastal town you may pinpoint a leaning towards a naval, merchant shipping or trawling background. Did your ancestor have access to a hospital, school, shops or theatre? Perhaps they had to trek several miles along country tracks to reach the nearest communities.

You don't just have to refer to old maps or facsimiles to view the landscape as it once was. Modern maps have gone through decades of evolution and still show evidence of the past. It is even possible to track `green ways', the ancient paths used by our Neolithic ancestors.

If you know where an ancestor lived, then a good map can even show you the Parish boundaries they fell within, very useful if you are planning to search through Parish registers.

The typology of maps, that is, the lettering styles employed often defined the character or use of a feature. Local government and administrative boundaries, registration districts, Victorian workhouses, churches and sites of antiquity to name but a few. A decent map and all Ordnance Survey maps come with detailed keys for easy identification of mapped features.

Of course not all maps comply to the same rules. Older ones may have been originally hand drawn or engraved. It would have been down to the author or the sponsor as to what information was shown and to what use the map was intended. A military map, for example, would not be of much use to someone collecting census returns. Scales vary and on maps more than about 200 years old are often non-existent. Nevertheless they can still be useful tools in building up a picture of the landscape. William Faden's Map of Norfolk (1797) does not provide much detail of towns and streets but it does show just how much heath and marsh existed across the county compared to today.

Local trade directories are often a good source for street maps of big cities in much the same way as telephone directories now. They may show government and cultural buildings in the city as well as roads, rivers, railways and tramlines. Even modern maps may show these features with the label `disused' to denote where such routes once lay.

Trade directories vary in the amount of information they contain. Generally, the later they are, the more comprehensive the data within. They may contain not only trade information, but lists of names and addresses of local inhabitants, illustrations of landmarks and local businesses and institutions. You can pinpoint them onto a period map or facsimile thereof and build up a detailed picture of your ancestors' community.

Tithe maps can offer all sorts of information, particularly if your ancestor was a farmer or landowner. Tithes are large scale maps and drawings detailing land ownership. Between 1836 and 1852, over 11,000 of them were made. Early census returns can help to pinpoint properties on these documents. Tithe maps often come with apportionments, the written records setting out in detail all the names of owners, payments being made, field names and boundaries, produce and tenants. They are not to scale and not all of them survive but much of England and Wales are still covered.

Three copies of each tithe were produced. One went to the tithe office and these copies now reside at the Public Record Office in London. The other two copies went to the Bishop and the parish clerk. Where they survive, these copies are held in the relevant county archive.

A wide variety of facsimile maps exist for general sale including late 19th Century street maps covering many major towns and cities. England and Wales are also covered by a series of one inch to the mile first edition OS facsimiles. As well as the wealth of information provided on the maps themselves, these copies often contain additional written histories documenting local features and events and the development of the district.

When searching for old maps, several names will become familiar such as William Faden, John Speed and John Norden. Apart from the usual map-makers and booksellers, you can also find old maps in both local and metropolitan repositories. Both the British Library and the Public Record Office at Kew hold large collections, and every county record office will hold maps of some sort.

The use of maps, both old and new, can be very rewarding when included as a part of one's searches. It is always worth investigating the places where your distant relatives lived and worked. Wherever we settle, we cannot prevent our environment from having some influence on our lives, and neither could our ancestors. As any family historian will know, the road to the past is rarely straight and using the right maps can help you to find your way.

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