Whether you're looking for a historic map to overlay in Google Earth, or hoping to find your ancestor's town of origin, these online historical map collections offer don't miss resources for any genealogist. Find historical atlas, topographic, ordnance survey and other historical British maps, many available for free online viewing and downloading.

1. A Vision of Britain Through Time

Featuring primarily British maps, A Vision of Britain Through Time includes a great collection of topographic, boundary, and land use maps, to complement statistical trends and historical descriptions drawn from census records, historical gazetteers, and other records to present a vision of Britain between 1801 and 2001. Don't miss the link to the separate website, Land of Britain, with a much higher level of detail limited to a small area around Brighton.More »

2. Mapseeker: Historical Maps Online

This site offers online access to a wide variety of historical British maps, most of which can be viewed (including zooming) online, and many of which are also available for purchase. A set designated specifically as "Genealogy Map Resources" includes a nice variety of maps, such as Town Plans from The Royal Atlas of England and Wales 1898 Atlas and the 1852 Bradshaw Railway Atlas. Don't miss the full Mapseeker collection, which includes English town plans and county maps, plus maps from all over the British Isles, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.More »

3. British History Online: Ordnance Survey Maps

View the county series from the first Ordnance Survey maps, dating back to 1840, at scale 1:10,560 for Great Britain. The county series is also available at scale 1:2500 for Birmingham, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Coventry, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lichfield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Winchester, Worcester, York and much of central London.More »

4. Old-Maps

Part of a joint venture with Ordnance Survey, this digital Historical Map Archive for mainland Britain contains historical mapping from Ordnance Survey's Pre and Post WWII County Series mapping at various scales dating from c.1843 to c.1996, as well as Ordnance Survey Town Plans, and interesting Russian Maps of UK locations mapped by the KGB during the Cold War era. To locate maps, just search by address, place or coordinates based on modern geography, and the available historical maps will be displayed. All historical map scales are free to view online, and can be purchased as electronic images or prints.More »

5. Ancestry-Maps

Search by place name or current-day postal code to explore historical Ordnance Survey maps of Britain and Ireland at three scales: the bird’s-eye overview of 1:50,000, the street-level detail of 1:10,000 and the house-level scrutiny of 1:2,500 (from first editions of the Ordnance Survey series published in the 1870s and 1880s). Maps can not be viewed in great detail online, but can be purchased for immediate download in PDF format.More »

6. Old Maps Online

This mapping site is really neat, serving as an easy-to-use searchable gateway to historical maps hosted online by repositories around the world. Search by place-name or by clicking in the map window to bring up a list of available historical maps for that area, and then narrow further by date if needed. The search results take you directly to the map image on the website of the host institution. Participating institutions include the David Rumsey Map Collection, the British Library, the Moravian Library, and the National Library of Scotland.More »

7. British Library: Ordnance Survey Drawings

View the original, preliminary large-scale drawings made for the famous one-inch-to-the-mile Ordnance Survey maps made by the surveyors between the 1780s and 1840. They cover most of England south of a line between Liverpool and Hull.More »

8. Charles Booth Online Archive: Poverty Maps of London

Browse or search the poverty maps of London created by Charles Booth during his survey into life and labor in London, dating from 1886 to 1903. Each street is colored to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants; view the color classifications and additional details in the user guide.More »

9. National Library of Scotland Online Maps

Access high-resolution, zoomable images of over 48,000 maps of Scotland, including military surveys, bathymetrical charts, town plans, county maps, and early maps of Scotland. They even offer a series of geo-referenced historic maps presented as overlaps on a modern map.More »

10. Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747–1755

Search and view the 18th century Roy Military Survey map, often referred to as the Great Map, the only standard topographic map produced prior to the Ordnance Survey. For many Highland areas, it is also the most detailed and informative map that survives for the entire 18th century.More »