Maps

[AnneC]

I find it very useful to look at old maps, especially when looking at the descriptions of the census districts. The best I have found, especially for London, is MAPCO

Welcome to the MAPCO : Map And Plan Collection Online website.
MAPCO's aim is to provide genealogists, students and historians with free access to high quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views.
The site displays a variety of highly collectable 18th and 19th century maps and plans of London and the British Isles, and also 19th century maps and engravings relating to Australia.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

There is Old Maps which allow you to browse using modern map and then select a range of possible old maps to cover that location. They have a huge collection of old maps just bear in mind that coverage of areas outside towns/villages is often not that great.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

For modern maps it is often a good idea to search an OS Map of the UK. These are all online and can be accessed from Bing Maps. This is the one and only area I think Bing Maps beats Google Maps

To use this for family history

1. Search for the place in the UK using the search box of the Bing Maps site and zoom in to a reasonable level.
2. Click on "Road" label with a downwards arrow at the top left of the map in the toolbar
3. When the drop down appears select "Ordnance Survey Map"

You should now be able to see a full OS Map which will give you lots of features not seen on other maps including LOTS and LOTS of building names. For rural areas this is great for finding the actual building your ancestors stayed in as often the name survives for the same building.

Note that if you zoom in too far (lowest 3 levels of zoom) or zoom out beyond roughly half way zoomed in then you get back to the less detailed line maps.

As an example my 4g grandparents lived at Old What, New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Google Map

Bing Road Map (less detailed than Google Map)

OS Map on Bing Maps (amazingly detailed)

Now of course if you want to see interactive photographic views of exactly what the area looks like today then Google Maps and StreetView wins hands down.

(Click the thumbnail images and the StreetView link to see what I mean)

 

[MarionK]

Wow, thank you, Alexander, for this info. I've always used Google Maps & love getting down to StreetView. But the OS maps in Bing Maps are amazing!

 

[Andrew Bannister]

For modern maps it is often a good idea to search an OS Map of the UK. These are all online and can be accessed from Bing Maps.

Alexander,
many thanks - this is a most valuable tip. Do you know the scale of the OS maps - it looks like 1:50000, but maybe it's 1:25000?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The scale depends on how much you zoom in it has 1:50,000 1:25,000 and 1:10,000 I believe. As you zoom in you will find the map suddenly gets more detailed.

 

[Andrew Bannister]

The scale depends on how much you zoom in it has 1:50,000 1:25,000 and 1:10,000 I believe. As you zoom in you will find the map suddenly gets more detailed.

Now that I've taken the time to have a good play, I realise this is even better than I first thought - there seems to be worldwide coverage with detailed maps of various qualities in most countries (though, not surprisingly, it defaults to something like Google Earth in countries like North Korea!). So it's an asset for many uses apart from Family History. Worth bookmarking! many thanks again, Alexander

 

[Charlie]

Interesting option that I'd not seen before. Unfortunately don't seem to have coverage in the area of Ireland I was looking for - unless I was doing something wrong.

 

[Siobhan]

When I clicked on the Bing link Alexander it took me to the part of Australia where I live - I followed your instructions and clicked on roads and then OS - unfortunately no OS map but a reasonable street view. Others from Australia might like to check to see if OS maps for their area.

Thank you for the link and instructions, the OS maps will be very helpful to me as most of my ancestors are in the UK and sometimes I am not exactly sure where places are, especially when they lived in the South East of England.

 

[SuzanneD]

Locating London is very good if you have London ancestors - you can enter and 'pin' a street name and toggle between 1746, Victorian and modern maps.

There are other more powerful layers but it's not terribly straightforward to navigate these - although once you get the hang of it you can overlay lots of things like parish boundaries, mortality and population information, and criminal records, to build up a picture of the place your ancestors lived.

 

[AnneC]

Locating London is very good if you have London ancestors - you can enter and 'pin' a street name and toggle between 1746, Victorian and modern maps.

Thanks for this Suzanne, I haven't come across the site before. I usually use MAPCO (see first post for the link), but it doesn't have the search facility that Locating London does and I end up searching a modern map first and then finding the same area on the old map. I'm sure I'll use LL a lot in future.

 

[SuzanneD]

I use both Locating London and MAPCO together as well, if I'm looking for something in a period not covered by one of the Locating London maps - you can often find where the street is on LL, and then look for it on a map on MAPCO that's closer to the date you want.