Finding Your Way

 

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland

There are plenty of online resources to help you locate and become familiar (or more familiar!) with the places where your ancestors were born, lived, worked, and were laid to rest. I've picked just a few examples and you can find plenty more using GENUKI for the UK and Ireland, or Cyndi's List for pretty much everywhere.

The Gazetteer of British Places was created by the Association of British Counties and has a number of useful tools including a post code converter, an interactive map of the UK and Ireland, and a database of more than 300,00 place names. It's a fantastic reference resource and definitely worth adding to your bookmarked websites.

When I'm carrying out research in the United States, my first port of call is often Hometown Locator. Its searchable website lists places in the USA by state, county, and city, providing maps and useful historical information about changes in county boundaries which can dictate the location of the archive most relevant to your search. Although it's aimed at current house hunters, it's proved invaluable to me as I've found my way around my ancestors' American wanderings.

Once you've pinpointed where your family's home was, you'll want to learn more about the area when they lived there. 

For Scottish research, some of the best resources for this are The Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-1845. These contain contemporary descriptions of each parish, county by county, with details of the geography, history, trades and industries, agriculture, historic sites, and land-owners. The latter is invaluable for finding out who your ancestors might have worked for, or been tenants of. The accounts only refer to individuals who were influential, wealthy, or otherwise of note, so don't expect to find your family named unless they fall into one of these categories!

An equivalent for England is the Victoria County History. Each county has a home page assigned to it, where you can find links to historical resources such as the Red Books, which may be hosted off-site at the Internet Archive. These include references to sites within the county that are recorded in the Domesday Book.

Victoria History of the County of Surrey

No list of geographical resources would be complete without reference to the National Library of Scotland's excellent online map images. It covers the whole of Great Britain and Ireland and its historical maps go back several centuries. It also hosts town plans, admiralty charts and aerial photography collections.

NLS Maps

And of course it wouldn't be a frugal family history post if any of these resources cost you anything! A word of advice: set yourself a timer or alarm, or you may find that hours have gone by since you started browsing...