A great and often underused resource for the family historian are historical maps.

They illustrate the area in which your ancestor lived; on some maps individual land holdings are plotted and even the home your ancestor lived in can be identified.

One great resource from the mid 19th-century are the tithe maps which give an extremely detailed picture of life in Victorian England. Tithe maps are the first systematic mapping survey of most of the land in England and Wales, compared with estate maps which were drawn up by landowners, mainly for private use. They also pre-date the Ordnance Survey series of 25 inch to the mile maps.

The maps, which were made between 1841 and 1845, list all the land holdings in specific parishes along with a schedule detailing the landholder. These were not necessarily owners, but literally everyone who maintained or farmed the land. They are an invaluable tool and enable you to get a detailed understanding of the area your ancestor lived in or farmed.

You can use the tithe maps to discover Where did your ancestors lived; who lived in your village or even your house; what was land in your area was used for and the owner of the land.
You can also compare the tithe maps with later Ordnance Survey maps and aerial photographs.

Many of the maps in various counties have now been digitised and are available on line. A good example is the Cheshire tithe maps which can be found at http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/

Almost 500 Cheshire tithe maps are available online. Together with the information recorded in tithe schdule or ‘apportionments’, they are a unique record of land ownership, occupancy and use in Cheshire 150 years ago.

You will find tithe maps at the county records offices along with the accompanying tithe schedule. All the holdings on the map are numbered and these correspond with the name of the person holding the land on the schedule. Many tithe records are available on CD from family history societies or are available on line.

Estate maps, many of which contain detailed information about an area from as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are another useful tool in analysing the development of a particular area. Some of these, particularly the early ones, are rough and ready, often with childlike sketches of houses. But many of these will have the names of the inhabitants written next to them - a goldmine for the family historian.

Local record offices have detailed catalogues of their map collections and these are the first stop when beginning your research. Solicitors’ accumulations too often contain many detailed sketches and plans of property. Where these have been deposited with the local record office they too can provide valuable information.

You can access a directory of UK map collections at the British Cartographic Society’s site: www.cartography.org.uk/Pages/Publicat/Ukdir/Local14.html
The Lancashire County Council website www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/oldmap/index.asp is a useful resource for the location of Lancashire parish maps
www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html enables you to view old OS maps online
www.old-maps.co.uk/ enables you to search and purchase maps from 1846 onwards.
www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk/ Alann Godfrey Maps is an excellent resource for the family historian. More than 2,000 titles have been issued in a series of reprints of Old Ordnance Survey Maps of towns throughout Britain and Ireland. The complete catalogue can be viewed on line.

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