Do you use Sanborn Maps?

A recent article in Family Tree Magazine started me thinking about all the ways Sanborn maps can help us in our genealogy.

"Sanborn fire insurance maps were published for insurance companies to assess a structure’s risk of catching fire. They were published in different years for different places, and usually after 1920, a set of maps for a particular town might be updated by pasting over a new building.

The maps show subdivision names, streets, buildings, and building details such as address, purpose, composition, windows and doors. You can locate your ancestor’s address before renumbering and renaming that might’ve happened, and you get a good look at your ancestor’s neighborhood at the time."

The San Francisco Public Library has a full collection of maps for SF, but you can also find them online for most towns and cities in the US. 

I started with my gx2 Irish grandparents' tenement on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It's Prescott Court, and they lived in the back of number 26, next to the Garibaldi Livery Stable.  Where do you think the children went to school?

Notice that industries and house materials are featured. These were fire insurance maps, designed to help the fire departments assess risks, as well as to let insurance companies know how much to charge you.

 

Look at the amount of detail you get on a close-up.  I wonder what 26 1/2 was.

Here's a full section on Telegraph Hill.  Note the number of tanneries, factories, and other industries in the area.  Can you imagine what it would have been like living there?

Make sure you look at the keys to labeling.  Those are usually found on the first page of the town book.  For example, they will tell you the material used in the structure

Where can I find these?  The maps are online at the Library of Congress Website.

Here's where you'll enter your information to start searching.

Of course, you want to know where my gg grandparents' tenement was.  It's still there!  Here's a photo of the alley.  It's on the left.

Maggie