The Family Tree Historical Maps Book: A State-by-State Atlas of US History, 1790-1900 Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, July 14, 2014

On the positive side -- this book is a jewel for the genealogist. It contains a variety of U.S. maps for the various states during the period of 1790 to 1900. If you are doing research on a family, it is a great tool to show how they could have lived in six counties and several states during a 150 year period without ever moving. The only issue I have is that the maps are so small that you need a strong magnifying glass in order to read the details, The quality of the image is excellent but the printing is quite tiny sometimes.The book also provides a list of key dates for each state thereby facilitating the process of placing your family within the social framework of the time.

Very detailed, lots of maps showing when counties appeared and changed. Perfect for genealogy research!

It surprises me that the editors of Family Tree Magazine published this title in its current format. It is fun to flip through and see historical changes in states, but envision looking for detail on an 11” State map. Even a magnifying glass does not help. At best these are landscape images, not portraits. Names for some maps are provided, but details genealogists want are missing. Things such as the repository where an old map is housed, bibliographic details such as original size, publisher, date of publication, copyright (most likely many have expired and therefore ignored) or even paper type. Genealogists are better served by searching map collections for better information detail. The same lack of information is true for the special interest maps in the back section, such as foreign population. Still this is a fun book in a coffee table sense, not a reference book.

One of the best features is the way it is organized. All maps of the same state are found together in alphabetically order. Helpful "Key Dates" are given that associate ancestor to a specific event. Maps are provided for the time states were part of territories. I absolutely love this book. I've been keying into the migration process for most of my family lines. I've enjoyed looking up where they were and when. There are only 2 wishes I would have on the next edition. The writing on so many of the maps are so small that even my magnifying glasses cannot read them. I know that reproducing the master copy doesn't always lend to enlargements or adding several pages to accommodate the size. However, a nice little enlargement in the corner somewhere with an enlargement of settlement areas would be wonderful. For example, the settlement of Charlestown, MA aria . Also, for the next edition, try to extend the time from pre-1790.

I am very disappointed in this book as it is not as presented in the descriptions. The promo paragraphs spoke of how useful historical maps are in tracing Ancestors. They allow a researcher to determine where to look for records by showing the reshaping of the boundaries of the towns, counties, states, etc. so searches may be made in the correct jurisdiction for each time as the lines changed during the growth and reshaping of the nation. That feature was pretty much nullified as the formating of the book circumvents the purpose for publishing it.I have no complaint regarding the information contained in this book but in the presentation of the information.One example of the poorly thought out formating is that several of the maps which are spread over two pages have been printed without center margins so the maps themselves run right to the center of the book where it is bound so you lose a significant amount of the center of the map because it curves all the way down into the binding thereby making it impossible to view the center portion of the maps. I guess it doesn't matter if your main interests lie on either the East or West coasts as those regions are visible, however, if you are interested in following the tracks of your ancestors through the middle 20 % of the country don't bother to look at these maps because you cannot view any of the center portion of it unless you are willing to cut the binding of the book so the pages lay flat. My main complaint is that since the book is suppose to allow you to see how boundaries have changed I expected the individual area maps to be large enough to actually read and study. Nope! The maps which I think are probably of the most interest are the very early maps, as the colonies were forming and growing and changing. Yes, they have been included in the volume and comprise a significant portion of the content however most have been crowded 3 or 4 to a page so that the printing on them which identify the places is teeny tiny and much of the secondary text is very light. I couldn't decipher much of the print even using a very strong magnifying glass. One would think since the historic maps are the reason for this compilation they would have limited them to one or at the most two to a page so that the were able to be enlarged enough to be of use. In short this purchase was a complete and total waste of my money as I bought it as an aid to genealogical research. Ms or Mr Dolan, I think you had a great idea that sadly has been rendered useless for the proposed use by squeezing what should be wonderful visual resources into too little space. I am sad because I actually had anticipated making this purchase for a few years Had I been able to browse this in a physical store I would not have made the purchase.

The maps are small - so get a magnifier. But they are really helpful in showing quickly how a state has changed over time and also how the US has changed over time. There are even some special interest maps in the back which help with specific populations - foreign, Native American tribes - and other special interests. I am working on genealogy and family history from the very beginnings of the Colonies in the 1600's up to the present. These maps help to get a better idea of where people where and how they were moving.

This is a well put together book with beautiful maps, but when I zoom in the print is unreadable. I’d like to be able to use this resource to learn names of rivers and towns and not just look at the pretty colors. If the maps could be digitized in a way that would allow the reader to actually “read” the print close-up, this would be an invaluable resource, worthy of 5 stars. Perhaps my iPad-pro is outdated. I would recommend getting the print version and a magnifying glass.

Love this book which is helping me to locate which county or in some cases which state to look for vital records. I read all the reviews before buying this book some said print was too small. I knew this when I bought it. I till love it. It is much easier to use than online maps and I have them all in one spot. I use a 5X magnifyer and my husband and I both were able to easily read it.

A great research tool for my library.