Arcanum Maps

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

​I love learning about new genealogy and related sites. Here’s one that I think you find interesting. It’s Arcanum Maps - The Historical Map Portal. In addition to all the data that we research for our family history, understanding the place where they lived helps us understand their life. Let’s look.

The Arcanum Maps site allows you to view any of the maps online with the option to purchase any of the maps. You can then download full-resolution maps. According to their site, “Arcanum Maps presents detailed and accurate historical maps of several countries in an innovative way: great military surveys, maps of countries and cities and thematic maps.”
 
There are maps of Europe, City maps, Cadastral maps and Country maps. I decided to check out my favorite research place, Luxembourg, but no such luck under the Country maps. I decided to try my luck at City maps and found a very detailed map of London in 1755. You can enlarge the view to see detailed labels of the streets. Names like Unicorn Yard, Freeman’s Alley, and Blackraven make me want to delve further into the details.
 
Here’s a link to a detailed map of Norway from this site: 1:100,000 scale topographic map (Rektangelkart) of Kingdom of Norway | Arcanum Maps

​If you are searching in German Empire, the Meyers Gazetteer - An online, searchable version with historical maps is especially useful if you know the name of your village but are not sure of where it is located. You can do a search and find details about your village of interest and can see a map of the location today as well as toggle to a historical view.
 
There are many other maps to help you with your family history research. I hope you have fun exploring the locations of your ancestors.  Happy researching!