The previously planned blog post has been derailed by maps. 20,000 maps, to be precise. The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division of the New York Public Library released more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution downloads into the public domain. Property maps. Cemetery maps. Bird’s eye view maps. New York, New Jersey, the Mid-Atlantic. 700 maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. More, more more! It’s a rabbit hole of maps!

Check out this 1603 map of Russia by Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) updated by Micheal Coignet, “mathematitian of Antwarpe.”

More on maps as a tool for genealogy coming soon.