British Isles DNA by County

Finding Places

Resources

Content by:
Linda Thompson Jonas ©2006

Maps and Gazetteers

Cassell's Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (6 vols.) On microfilm:

Bartholomew, John. The Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles.

Landranger Map Series is a collection of 204 maps covering all of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). The map scale is 1:50,000 (1-1/4" to 1 mile). At the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the maps have been bound into three very large volumes and are located on a table next to the British Reference desk. All 204 maps are completely indexed in the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer of Great Britain (see below).

National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (4 vols.)

Ordnance Survey Gazetteer of Great Britain indexes all (approximately 250,000) place names in the Landranger map series. The gazetteer provides the Landranger map number and a grid reference. Each entry contains the following information [this is the example used by the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer]:

Houses of Parliament GLON TQ 3079 51º 29.9' 0º 07.2'W X 176 177

The name of the place is followed by the county abbreviation [GLON is Greater London]. Next is the National Grid reference [TQ 3079] followed by the latitude and longitude. A feature code is next [A = antiquity (Non Roman); F= forest; H = hill; R = Roman antiquity; T = City, Town, Village, etc; W = water feature; X = all other features]. The final number(s) is the sheet number of the Landranger map(s). Since map sheets overlap a place can appear on more than one map. The Houses of Parliament appear on map numbers 176 and 177.

To locate the place on the maps, the only essentials are the map number and the grid reference. For Houses of Parliament you would obtain Landranger map number 176 or 177. The grid numbers appear along the edges of the map. For the "3079" in the above entry, follow the top (or bottom) of the map to number 30 and the left (or right) side to number 79. The intersection of the two grid lines is the southwest corner of the grid square that contains the Houses of Parliament.

In the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer is located on the table with the Landranger maps (see above).

You can also search the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer online.