Villages and Maps
Quick Jumps:
Map Resources on the SGGEE site • Poland Maps on other sites • Volhynia Maps on other sites • Maps of Poland, Volhynia and other Eastern Europe regions on other sites • Maps and Village Locator for pre-World War I Germany
Helpful Hint: If you use Netscape as your browser, then be sure to use the zoom feature in the cursor to better read the maps. If you use Internet Explorer, then be sure to click on the icon that will appear at the lower right of the the image if you let your cursor hover there.
SGGEE Map Resources
- SGGEE Scanned Maps Page
SGGEE has scanned a number of maps and converted them to the DjVu format. - Searchable Index to the SGGEE Scanned Maps
Search an index of the maps scanned by SGGEE. Gives the location by map name and grid coordinate. - Jerry Frank Map of German Settlements of the 19th Century in Eastern Europe.
- Jerry Frank’s Maps of Russian Poland (PDF format)
Orientation map • Searchable Index for Poland maps available to members only - Jerry Frank’s Maps of Volhynia (PDF format)
Orientation map • Searchable Index for Volhynia maps available to members only - If you have ever wondered which district a village was located in within the province of Volhynia, then take a look at this map, created by Jerry Frank, that shows the district boundaries in Volhynia as they existed in 1899. The orange-brown lines are the boundaries.
Poland
The following are all off-site links.
1. Good Polish Road Map
When the web page opens, type in the name of the town under the red banner at the right and then click on "Pokaz". The map will display circles of all towns with that name and, in the bottom right, it will display additional info about the town. Double click anywhere on the map to bring up a road map of that area. Note: as of Sept. 10, 2008, an error message comes up when the site initially opens. Just click "OK" and the page will move on to the map view.
2. Quick overview of Poland with maps showing all of Poland and its relationship to Prussia, Silesia, and Galicia.
3. Maps of the area around Lublin, Poland on Trevor and Ania Butcher's web site.
4. Map of Lubelskie province of Poland (this includes Lublin) as well as some data on the region.
5. Map of the provinces of Poland, today, and before 1998 This site is of use in knowing what juridsdiction a village was in prior to 1998. This is also useful when looking at gazeteers and maps, as they mostly predate 1998.
6. POSEN-L Polish place names and the associated Catholic parish (this is for Posen province in Prussia, also known as Poznan) German names are given for many of the Polish towns, and there is also a link to Kartenmeister, which does contain the German place names and maps for many other modern-day Polish towns.
7. A map of Piotrkow Trybunalski This interactive map shows the streets and the buildings in this City south of Lodz. See also a history of Piotrkow (click the British flag top right for English version) and other information.
8. Uwe Kerntopf's Dobriner Land web site which has a listing of places in the Lipno and Rypin areas of Poland. The list includes the Polish name and the equivalent German name, and also the district and county. See the side bar at this site under "Ortschaften "
9. A series of maps showing the governing districts in Russian Poland in 1907 (Prussia is a separate country at this point, so these maps do not show that area of present-day Poland. There is a key map and then individual maps of each district. Not really detailed, but shows many of the larger towns, and gives a good idea of the district boundaries.
10. Central Vistula River Area For a good look at villages and pictures of villages in the general area of Plock, including some maps.
Volhynia
1. Some readers may have previously used the Berkley (USC) maps, very good quality scans, dated 1942+ and at a very detailed 1:100,000 scale. They are no longer available at that site but can be found on the Russian Vlasenko site linked below. Neither of these has a convenient grid system to identify the right maps to use so Dave Obee has graciously provided us with one for both western and eastern Volhynia. Though Dave has provided the grid, the actual maps are not stored on his site.
You can also search for other parts of the Ukraine using this site. Using it requires that you contend with Cyrillic and that you know an approximate region for the village. They are not indexed. On the Vlasenko site, click on the grid for the region where you think your village is. There is unfortunately no good way to guess exactly where that will be. Experience with finding the village on older maps will help to pinpoint the region.
2. Karlswalde, Volhynia maps follow the link to maps
3. If you have ever wondered which district a village was located in within the province of Volhynia, then take a look at this map, created by Jerry Frank, that shows the district boundaries in Volhynia as they existed in 1899. The orange-brown lines are the boundaries. The same map by others in Russian.
4. The Archiwum Map site referenced below also has detailed maps of Volhynia but the indexing system is not easy to follow. You can find a grid map at the Polish language Strony O Wolyniu site. Use the link and click on "Mapy Sztabowe" to get to it. While there, browse other material on the site, all of interest but in the Polish language. Note that not all the eastern portions of Volhynia are available on the Archiwum Map site.
Maps of Poland, Volhynia, and other parts of Eastern Europe
Archiwum Map Wojskowego Instytutu Geograficznego is a site that is collecting and posting a variety of very detailed topographic maps of Europe including Poland and Volhynia and ranging from 1:25,000 scale to 1:300,000. There is no index so you have to know the general location of your village before you can use them. The very detailed scale makes them an excellent resource. The page is available in English. The collection is continuing to add new material. While there are gaps, go back regularly to see if they have been filled. The Wolhynien.de site has a list of abbreviations and terms typically used on these maps in Polish / German / English.
Jewish Shtetl Seeker
Index for most villages in Europe with links to maps showing the locations. This index is especially useful because of its sounds-like search that allows you to find places even if your input is misspelled.
Polish and Volhynian Maps
From the Polish Genealogical Society
FEEFHS Map Room
A variety of old maps covering eastern Europe.
1910 Austrian Series
1:200,000 scale series covering all of East-central Europe. For an easier to use grid that only covers Volhynia, refer to Dave Obee's Volhynia website.
The "Slownik" series is a 15 volume geographical dictionary / gazetteer of Poland published 1880-1902 and previously only readily available on microfilm. It can now be viewed on line but it is recormmended that you use some English resources to help with your research. You will require the DjVu software to view the material. Two sites that provide the detail you need are the Halgal (East Galicia) website with a direct link to the source material and the PolishRoots site which provides some helpful guides to using the material.
Maps and Village Locator for pre-World War I Germany
1. East Prussia maps (circa 1939)
Remember that East Prussia is only a part of present-day Poland, so if the place you seek is not in East Prussia, you will not find it. Also be sure to use wildcards (partial spelling with a * at the end) if you have difficulty finding a place, as it may be spelled differently than you think it is. The map format of this site is not particularly user friendly but, if you are having trouble finding an elusive village, it may work for you.
You can use this search to find villages in East Prussia but it was set up primarily to search the Ostpreussenblatt (East Prussian Newspaper). To use this search tool, enter the village name in the top box and click on "Finden". The other boxes are only for newspaper searches so leave them blank.
One has to be careful using this search. A search for the village of Wischenen has 1 result. Searching for, say Albrechtsdorf, has 4 results and for Königsberg 750. This is because the search engine is scanning all issues of the newspaper. Links to a map would always read "Die Ostpreußenkartenseite mit Ortsverzeichnissen" (the page of East Prussian maps with village list). The key word to look for is "karte".
When you click on the appropriate link, you will get a small map section of East Prussia which you may find difficult to use. You can try relating to the location using the key map. For a full list of all 474 small map segments, use this index.
2. Kartenmeister is village locator for old Germany. The limits of the part of Germany covered are based on the borders of the eastern provinces of Germany in Spring 1918. Included in this database are the following provinces: Eastprussia, including Memel; Westprussia; Brandenburg; Posen; Pommerania; and Silesia. Includes some detail maps as well, some of which cover the Suwalki region of Russian Poland.