Samoa Maps

Maps are an important source in locating where your ancestors lived because they help you see the neighboring towns and geographic features of an area.

Maps identify places, parishes, districts, churches, geographical features, and transportation routes, and their proximity to other towns. Historical maps are especially useful for understanding boundary changes.

Maps are published individually or in atlases, which are bound collections of maps. Maps may also be included in gazetteers, guidebooks, local histories, and history texts.

Different types of maps can help you in different ways. Historical atlases describe the growth and development of countries. They show boundaries, migration routes, settlement patterns, military campaigns, and other historical information. Road atlases are useful because they provide detail of the countryside. Ordnance survey maps show townships in great detail—up to half inch to the mile. City and street maps are extremely helpful when researching large cities such as Sydney; they provide locations of churches, cemeteries, businesses, government offices, and monuments. Other types of maps include parish maps, county atlases, and topographical maps.

Using Maps
Maps must be used carefully for several reasons:


 * There are often several places with the same name.
 * The spelling (and even names) of some towns may have changed since your ancestors lived there. Some localities have different names in different languages.
 * Place names are often misspelled. Difficult names may have been shortened, and important diacritic marks may have been omitted.
 * Political boundaries are not clearly indicated on all maps.

The Family History Library has a small collection of Samoan maps and atlases. These sources are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

SAMOA - MAPS

Web Sites
http://www.samoa.co.uk/maps.html

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/oceania/ws.htm

http://www.mapsouthpacific.com/samoa/index.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/samoa.html