Gazetteers for Local & Family History Research: Five Frequently Asked Questions

By Lauren Kuntzman

Gazetteers can be powerful resources for local and family history research, but are often misunderstood and overlooked. Here are the answers to five Frequently Asked Questions to improve your knowledge of gazetteers. 

1. What is a gazetteer?

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary. Much like a language dictionary, a gazetteer is an alphabetical list of terms, followed by explanatory details. Specific to gazetteers, the lists are of place names, with information about each locale.  

2. What type of information might be in a gazetteer?

While all gazetteers are similar in their geographical focus, their content can vary widely. Gazetteers may list and describe…  

• cities, towns, and townships 

• geological features (creeks, lakes, etc.)

• man made structures (churches, forts, schools, etc.)

Accordingly, the “definition” of each place varies with the focus of the book, but most tend to describe a place’s history, location, resources, and society. 

History	date of establishment and years of existence founders (or architects, builders, or owners) previous names, variant spellings, and/or how a name was chosen milestones
Location	address and/or coordinates in latitude and longitude township and/or county proximity to other towns, railroads, and water sources boundaries
Resources	businesses, churches, meeting houses, and schools  newspapers and post offices railroads and water sources
Society	architecture and culture economy governance population

3. How can gazetteers help with local and family history research?

Local and family history research may benefit from using gazetteers in many ways.

Gazetteers can...

Directly answer questions about historic homes. 

This entry for the H. G. Blake House from the gazetteer Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places answers…

• Who designed and/or built the home
• Who was the first owner?

• When was the home built?

• What architectural style was it originally designed in?

Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places

Provide insights into the development of an institution or a town. 

Virginia Wheeler Martin (the FHLC’s benefactor) attended Miami University. Reading entries for Miami University in a series of gazetteers, published contemporaneously to its founding, describe how it evolved – and its shaky start. 

In 1816, the university was described as such:

The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary, 1816

But by the end of the next decade, the outlook for the university was much improved! 

The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary, 1829

Improve your understanding of a location and, in turn, help distinguish your ancestor from other individuals with the same name. 

Medina Gazette, 2 Sept. 1927, p. 7.

For example, a newspaper clipping describes C. H. Rodgers visiting his brother Harvey at “Clarks Corners.”  You know you had ancestors living near Wadsworth, but you’ve never heard of Clarks Corners… and Harvey Rodgers is a fairly common name. 

Checking Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide, we find that...

Entry for "Clark's Corners" in Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide.

Learning that Clark's Corners is near Wadsworth, helps confirm that you have found information on your relative! 

Act as stepping stone resource: by learning more about an ancestor’s location in a gazetteer, it may lead you to additional documents about your relative. 

Since almost all genealogical records are initially created within a geographical jurisdiction, understanding an area is crucial to finding available records. 

For example, if researching an individual living in Norton, Summit County, Ohio, it is useful to learn from a gazetteer that Norton Township was, at one time, part of Medina County. To thoroughly research an individual living in that area, one would need to search for records in both Medina County and Summit County. 

The Ohio Gazetteer and Travelers Guide, 1837

Understand an ancestor’s community and their life experiences. 

For example, Medina Library founder Franklin Sylvester moved to Granger Township as a young child in the mid-1830s. A gazetteer describes what he and his family would have encountered around the time of their arrival: 

The Ohio Gazetteer and Travelers Guide, 1841

4. How can I get the most from a gazetteer?

Gazetteers are at their best when used together with maps and land deeds. Returning to our example with Franklin Sylvester…

From the gazetteer, we learned that Granger Township had approximately 700 inhabitants when he moved there as a child. We also learned that it had a post office, that it was almost 7 miles from the county seat and 120 miles from the state capital. 

From land deeds, we find that Franklin Sylvester, at age 16, co-purchased a piece of property with his father. They bought 25 acres on section 33 in Granger Township. 

Knowing he lived on Section 33, we can then turn to maps. In this 1857 map of Granger Township, we can see the community buildings in his area. To make the buildings easier to locate the map, numbers have been added in orange. #1 marks school houses; #2 - graveyards; #3 - a shoemaker; #4 - church; #5 - store and post office; #6 - hotel; and, #7 - academy.

5. Where can gazetteers be found?

• In your local library. As mentioned earlier, the FHLC has several Ohio gazetteers in its collection, as well as gazetteers for other states. The Ohio gazetteers include: 

• The 1833 Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary (1883, reprinted 1981) by “A Citizen of Columbus” (Note: view online here.)

• Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places, 2 vols. (1999), by Lorrie K. Owen, editor

• Ohio Place Names (1996) by Larry L. Miller

• Ohio Towns and Townships to 1900: A Location Guide (2011) by Julie Minot Overton

• In digital libraries, like…

• The Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

• HathiTrust (https://hathitrust.org)

• Tip: Conduct a keyword search for the place of your interest, plus the word “gazetteer.”  Repeat your search using "dictionary," "directory," or "traveler's guide" instead of the word "gazetteer."

• On standalone websites.  Examples include:

• Maplandia.com (http://www.maplandia.com) (Developed from place names in Google Maps.)

• Meyers Gazetteer (https://www.meyersgaz.org) (An important resource for individuals of German ancestry.) 

• World Historical Gazetteer (https://whgazetteer.org) (Includes historical/defunct places.)

Hopefully, the next time you need to research a place, you'll turn to a gazetteer for help! If you have difficulties finding gazetteers for your research -- or you want to view one of the ones discussed above -- come visit the Family History & Learning Center. We're also available to help by email at me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info.

Want to view the gazetteers and map mentioned in the article? Access digital copies at the following links:

• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1816
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1817
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1821
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1829
• The Ohio Gazetteer, or, Topographical Dictionary - 1833
• The Ohio Gazetteer, and Traveler's Guide - 1837
• The Ohio Gazetteer, and Traveler's Guide - 1841
• Map of Medina County, Ohio - 1857