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Antique Maps for Genealogy and Family History

Genealogy turns names and dates into a story; a map gives that story a place. An antique map of the region your family came from — drawn close to the time they lived there — is one of the most moving ways to display your research.

A tangible link to your roots

A family tree records who; a period map shows where. Hung beside a chart or a few old photographs, a map of an ancestral homeland grounds the whole history in real geography — the towns, rivers and borders your forebears knew.

Choosing the right map

Aim for a map close to the era your ancestors emigrated or lived. Borders and place-names change, so an older map often shows the region as your family would have known it — the patchwork states of Germany before unification, the kingdoms of Old Regime Europe, or the provinces of India under earlier rule.

Reading old place-names

Towns are often recorded under older or foreign spellings, and territories may belong to states that no longer exist. That is part of the value: the map preserves a world that has since changed, the very world your ancestors left.

Find your region

Browse world and regional maps to find a homeland, supplied as a framed giclée print ready to hang beside your family history.