Kentucky Maps

United States Kentucky  Kentucky Maps

Maps are used to locate the places where your ancestor lived. They identify political boundaries, names of places, geographical features, cemeteries, churches, and migration routes. Historical maps are especially useful for finding communities that no longer exist.

For maps illustrating how Kentucky county boundaries have changed over time, visit the free online Kentucky County Formation Maps, courtesy: MapofUS.org and AniMap 3.0 or Newberry Atlas of Historical County Boundaries for Kentucky. Type year of interest. Click County Index for history of boundary changes. The Kentucky Department of Commerce in Frankfort has a large collection of maps and atlases for the state. The Kentucky Historical Society and the University of Kentucky in Lexington also have good collections. Some maps and atlases for Kentucky include the following:


 * Kentucky: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. New York, NY: Charles Schribner’s Sons, 1995. This volume contains maps of each county of Kentucky that trace the boundary changes that occurred. It is part of a project of the Newberry Library to create historic county atlases for each of the 48 states of the continental United States.
 * Puetz, C. J. Kentucky County Maps. Lyndon Station, Wisconsin: County Maps, [1990?]. This book contains detailed maps of each county with towns, roads, points of interest, and major rivers and creeks.
 * Rone, Wendell H. An Historical Atlas of Kentucky and Her Counties: Daviess County, 1815–1965. Sesquicentennial ed. Owensboro, KY: Progress Printing, 1965. . This atlas contains maps showing changes in county boundaries and charts showing the county name origins, formation dates, acreage, and population by census year.
 * Streams of Kentucky. [N.p.]: Kentucky Department of Commerce, 1973. . This map shows major and minor waterways of Kentucky, with county boundaries and county seats, and can be used to help determine migration routes and settlement patterns in the state.
 * Mead, H.D. Kentucky and Tennessee. A complete guide to their railroads, stations and distances, connections north and south; their rivers, landings. Louisville, H.E. 1867. Free digital copy.

The Family History Library has city ward maps of Louisville for 1861, 1868, 1873, and 1882. These help with searches of the 1860 to 1880 censuses.


 * Ward Maps of United States Cities: Microfilm Reproduction of 232 Maps Described in Ward Maps of United States Cities. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, [1975?] [containing Louisville, Ky.].
 * United States Census Bureau State and County Map. This map will allow you to zoom in on any state or county in the United States and read the names of all of the neighboring counties.
 * Kentucky State and County Maps - County Boundary Maps, D.O.T Highway Maps and Old Atlases Maps

See Kentucky Gazetteers, United States Gazetteers, and United States Maps for more resources regarding places in Kentucky. Also check the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

KENTUCKY- MAPS

KENTUCKY, [COUNTY]- MAPS

KENTUCKY, [COUNTY], [TOWN]- MAPS

KENTUCKY- GAZETTEERS

KENTUCKY- HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

KENTUCKY- NAMES, GEOGRAPHICAL

KENTUCKY- MIGRATION, INTERNAL

Printable maps are also available from the National Atlas of the United States