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Maps of Kentucky

Map of Kentucky Counties

Map of Kentucky county boundaries and county seats

Maps of Kentucky tend to be an vital element of genealogy and family tree research, particularly in the event you live far from where your ancestors lived. Given that Kentucky political borders sometimes changed, historic maps are generally essential in assisting you find out the exact location of your ancestor’s home, exactly what land they owned, just who their neighbors had been, and a lot more.

Maps of Kentucky are an excellent source for getting started with your research, since they provide you with useful information and facts right away. Kentucky Maps are usually a major resource of considerable amounts of details on family history.

One of the earliest known maps printed of Kentucky is John Filson’s for 1784. A later detailed map of Kentucky watercourses (22 x 46 inches) is published and sold by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Maps and Publications Office, Division of Research, 133 Holmes St., Frankfort, KY 40601. This office maintains a large collection of maps and atlases available for purchase. Helpful in locating early land grants is Luke Munsell’s map printed in 1819 entitled “Map of the State of Kentucky together with parts of Indiana and Indian Territories.” A copy of this map can be obtained from the Library of Congress, Photoduplication Service, Washington, DC 20540.

The Kentucky Libraries and Archives houses a collection of Kentucky maps for the period 1784–1818, including agency-sponsored late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century maps, but this collection is largely unprocessed. Maps for the state are also available at the Kentucky Historical Society, University of Kentucky Library, and the Filson Library. These collections include state, county, and city maps.

Cadastral maps show landowners, drawn from official registers, and used in conjunction with the appropriation of taxes, which list quantity, value, and ownership of real estate. Maps are included in:

  • DenBoer, Gordon. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries: Kentucky. Edited by John H. Long. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1995. Contains data on 126 counties and includes 629 maps.
  • Field, Thomas P. Guide to Kentucky Place Names. Revised edition. Lexington: Kentucky Geological Survey, 1991. This updated edition replaces Rennick’s 1984 compilation.
  • Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. A survey of Kentucky places was undertaken in 1971. This volume was published to publicize and stimulate interest in the survey. It catalogs approximately one-fourth of presently known places, usually only the largest, best known, and/or most important.
  • Stephenson, R. W. Land Ownership Maps. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1967. Contains maps of thirty-five Kentucky counties.

Kentucky’s 10 largest cities are Louisville, Lexington-Fayette, Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington,  Hopkinsville, Richmond, Florence, Georgetown and Henderson. Learn more about Historical Facts of Kentucky Counties.

Interactive Map of Kentucky County Formation History

(Kentucky maps made with the use AniMap Plus 3.0 & with the Permission of the Goldbug Company)


Old Antique Atlases & Maps of Kentucky

Disclaimer: All Kentucky maps are free to use for your own genealogical purposes and may not be reproduced for resale or distribution.Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection


D.O.T. County Road and Highway Maps of Kentucky

To View the Map: Just click the Image to view the map online. In order to make the Image size as small as possible they were save on the lowest resolution.

These maps are downloadable and are in PDF format (Images are between 500k and 1.5 meg so loading may be slow if using a dial-up connection). These Maps are Free to Download

Kentucky Map Links