1877 Atlas of the Eastern Shore
Detailed Lake, Griffing and Stevenson maps showing towns, election districts, roads, waterways, and many landowners.
Maps of Somerset County and Old Somerset
Historic maps are among the most useful tools for Somerset County research. County boundaries, hundreds, election districts, waterways, roads, landowners, and place names changed over time, so a map can often explain why a record appears in a neighboring county or under an unfamiliar name.
John C. Lyon’s Old Somerset Maps
Hundreds, settlement, land-grant, and boundary maps developed from extensive research into patents and surveys.
Historic and Research Maps
- Maryland Historical Trust Medusa Map — search the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties and other cultural resources.
- Simon J. Martenet’s Somerset County Map, 1865 — interactive Maryland State Archives version.
- Old Somerset, 1877 — a smaller scan of the three-county map from the 1877 atlas.
- Lower Shore Boundaries, 1662 to the Present — a quick guide to shifting county boundaries.
- Harry L. Benson Platting Overview — an overview of plats used by Ruth Dryden in her Somerset and Worcester land-record work.
- Lower Eastern Shore Counties, 1794 — portion of H. Brooks Price’s historical map.
- Eastern Shore Railroad Experimental Survey, 1853 — Lower Shore landowners and geographic features along the proposed route.
- Lower Eastern Shore, 1794 — roads, waters, towns, houses of worship, mills, and other features.
- Eastern Shore Parishes — churches, parishes, and historic county boundaries.
- Lower Shore Area, 1840 — Old Somerset before creation of Wicomico County. Higher-resolution version.
- Old Somerset — 17th-century Somerset and the later daughter counties.
- Somerset’s Hundreds — from Wilmer O. Lankford’s They Lived in Somerset.
Early U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Maps
Research tip: Old Somerset extended into areas that are now Wicomico and Worcester counties in Maryland and part of Sussex County, Delaware. When a family seems to disappear, check changing county lines before assuming they moved.