Maps are an important source to locate the places where your ancestors lived. They help you see the neighboring towns and geographic features of the area from which your ancestor came.

Maps locate places, parishes, churches, geographical features, transportation routes, and proximity to other towns. Historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes.

Maps are published individually, or as atlases. An atlas is a bound collection of maps. Maps may also be included in gazetteers, guidebooks, local histories, and history books.

Different types of maps can help you in different ways. Historical atlases describe the growth and development of countries. They show boundaries, migration routes, settlement patterns, military campaigns, and other historical information. Road atlases are useful because of the detail they provide. Street maps are extremely helpful when researching in large cities such as Napoli, which is divided into specific sections, or quartieri.

Using Maps

Maps must be used carefully for several reasons:

• There are often several frazioni with the same name. For example, there are 10 towns called Rochetta in present-day Italy.
  
• Comuni with the same name were given an additional name to distinguish them from the others. For example: San Giovanni in Fiore in Cosenza and San Giovanni La Punta in Catania.
  
• The spelling and even names of some towns may have changed since your ancestors lived there. Some localities have different names in different languages. For example, the town presently known as Vipeteno was named Sterzing when it was part of Austria.
  
• Place-names are often misspelled in Anglicized sources. Difficult names may have been shortened and important diacritic marks omitted. For example, Livorno may be found as Leghorn on some maps.
  
• Political boundaries are not clearly indicated on all maps.