Park Genealogical Books-
Research Notes

From the specialists in genealogy and local history for Minnesota and the surrounding area

Minnesota Maps and Atlases

Where people lived often dictated how they lived and kept records. In a frontier attracting settlers from New England, Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland and other points, living among the descendents of early fur traders, entrepreneurs and Indians, land is a critical piece in the family puzzle. Excellent maps of the state and where the immigrants settled can be found in They Chose Minnesota, a classic work on ethnic roots within the state.

The next question is often "Who lived next door?" In addition to the census records, the orderly pattern of the landscape provides clues, too. That pattern results from the Land Ordinance of 1785, the American Rectangular Land Survey System, which created an arrangement of counties, townships and sections. Based on a 'township' with six-by-six numbered sections of one square mile, it affected the placement of roads, property boundaries, even schools and buildings.

With a Minnesota land description, a researcher can use both old and more modern maps to locate family property. A typical description provides township, range and section (T, R, and S) numbers and can be found on assessment rolls, in wills, or deeds and mortgages. Though the township names can come and go or change over time, the land description remains constant.

Published maps of landowners began early, too, with large wall maps. These show who the neighbors were, the locations of churches, schools, lakes, cemeteries, railroads, transportation routes and other features. A researcher can determine where the ancestor went to buy supplies, record vital records, and pay taxes. Using maps of the same area over a period of time can reveal how the land was developed, and give hints for looking at land records. Assessment records for taxes and road construction gain a new dimension when compared to such maps. Check out your Minnesota county to see if an atlas for the county of your interest has been indexed.

Minnesota boasts the first published landowner atlas for any state, A.T. Andreas' Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Minnesota, published in 1874. Subscribers who purchased an atlas had their names included, along with the year they arrived in Minnesota and where they came from. Andreas' salesmen went back to each patron, and sold pictures, illustrations of farmsteads and businesses, and biographical sketches. The Andreas atlas can be a valuable research tool to find early Minnesotans. It has been digitized and is available through the Minnesota Digital Library.

Only one other statewide atlas with landowners has been published, and that was in 1916, by Hixson. Both this atlas and the Andreas have been microfilmed, which makes them available to a wider audience through the Minnesota Historical Society. Ask the reference librarian at your local public library to get them for you through interlibrary loan.

Minnesota Landowner Maps and Atlases by Mary Hawker Bakeman is a bibliography of wall maps, atlases, reprints, indexes, and microforms, by county, with the library locations where copies are held. The two major map libraries in Minnesota are the Minnesota Historical Society and the John Borchert Map Library at Wilson Library on the University of Minnesota Minneapolis West Bank campus. It also includes a full description of the American Rectangular Land Survey System. With this volume you can help track down the maps you need to bracket the dates your ancestor spent in a particular location within Minnesota.

Whether you have to backtrack from a landowner map to the legal description or get the legal description from a county court house, land purchase records may provide where your ancestors lived before moving here, and land sale records may provide names and relationships through the land transfers. Don't neglect these links in your research!

Check the Park Genealogical Books on-line catalog for resources for your county(ies) of interest!

© 2007 Park Genealogical Books, Roseville MN

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