Sanborn Maps

How many of you have used Sanborn Fire Maps in your research?  They can come in very handy when you have a cluster of folks you're researching that live in one particular area.  It's a little like finding a family on a census record and then paging backward and forward looking for other relatives who might be neighbors.

There's a very good description of the Sanborn maps at Wikipedia, so I won't have to go into very much detail, but it's definitely worth a look and you'll see the value.

I spend quite a bit of time at the Lyman and Merry Wood Museum of Springfield History in Springfield, Massachusetts.  It's one of the best kept secrets on all of Western Massachusetts!  Among the millions (Yes, MILLIONS) of documents and records archived there are a set of Sanborn Fire Maps of the area.  And they are a boon to anyone doing research in the area.

The idea of blogging about Sanborn to provide everyone with a pretty good research tip came from a member of a Facebook group I moderate.  You can find that group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/findagravediscussion/.  Feel free to request an add!  Anna Rees, a member of the group, is the person who made the recommendation.  Thanks, Anna!  See that?  I promised to give you full credit for the idea!

] Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, District of Columbia 1888 (excerpts): Center Market (Photo credit: lacafferata)

Location in Hampden County in Massachusetts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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