Atlases, Maps and Gazetteers: What’s the Difference?
Knowing where to look for your ancestors is a vital part of family history research. Without knowing where the ancestors lived, accessing their records can present challenges. Atlases, maps and gazetteers are useful tools for locating ancestors and understanding their geographical surroundings. How can these tools help solve research problems?
Atlases
Atlases are bound collections of maps. They may focus on a county, a state, a country, or the entire world. Some atlases focus on a theme, such as historic, economic, or social changes. Others may show roads or highways in a state, province, or region. Atlases are useful for showing the relationship of one place to another in geographic terms.
Gazetteers
Gazetteers are geographical dictionaries that summarize information about and cross-reference villages, districts and other geopolitical divisions. When you look up a place, you’ll learn its administrative district, the correct spelling (or alternate spellings) of the place name, and names of local parishes. Some gazetteers even describe life in the ancestral village, including population, area, prominent religions, history and even civil records offices. Be sure to look in neighboring villages for clues to where “missing” ancestors may be living.
Maps
When you first think of geography, you probably think of maps. In addition to giving the location of the ancestral town, maps provide geographical context, including place of residence:
- Was it located in a forest, in a mountainous area or along the coast?
- Was it located in a city or in a rural or remote area?
- What nearby county or town might have your ancestor’s records?
All three of these tools can contribute useful information to your genealogy research. It is important to identify the correct place and time in which your ancestors lived. Place names of countries, towns and villages change or disappear. Boundary lines have repeatedly changed over time.
BLM 3/27/2018