Using Meyers Orts to find German Locations

Readers have been posting a few suggestions on using Meyers Orts based upon my recent article on Ancestry.com's blog. The article can be viewed on the actual Ancestry.com blog. Please post any suggestions for using the gazetteer on either this blog or the Ancestry one.

Using Meyers Orts

The last two articles I've written for the Ancestry.com blog have focused on using their German geographic finding aids.

The first one was an overview of using Meyers Orts and the 19th and 20th century topographical maps at Ancestry.com. Those who have never used Meyers Orts might want to give the article a look as it provides a few examples and suggests additional finding references to help the user when working with these materials.

The second one was a follow up focusing on a family who just could not seem to stay in one place and whose records in the United States gave a variety of places of birth. It also provides suggestions as well about navigating the German topographical maps at Ancestry.com

German Topographic Maps At Ancestry.com

Ancestry has added German topographical maps from the 1860s to the early twentieth century
to their site.

These are really nice maps. A sample image has been placed here. It is from the 1901 map for the Aurich area, but only Holtrop and the surrounding area is shown. This is where several of my families lived in the 1860s and before.

The "overview map" has also been scanned and is where users should start and indicates what pages of the map contains what areas (click on Übersichtsblatt to get the image--it is large).

We will be posting additional suggestions for using the maps, but I wanted to make blog readers aware of their availability on Ancestry.com. I'm hoping to have more time to really get into these maps over the next few days.

Blog readers who do not have a subscription can get a free trial at Ancestry.com and do some experimentation.

Ancestry.com also has Meyers -Orts on their site as well.