Start your historical journey here. RELIC's email newsletter highlights upcoming free events and happenings. Genealogy and local Virginia history are our specialties as a service provided by Prince William Public Libraries (PWPL). You can always find more about us on RELIC's webpage.
RELIC service is available:
Hours of Operation
Monday – Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Thursday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Closed Sunday
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All programs will be in person at Central Library.
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Saturday, September 24, 2:00 p.m.
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RELIC's Don Wilson will lead a roundtable discussion addressing "brick wall" problems with your genealogical research.
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Thursday, October 20, 2:00 p.m.
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Before 1850, the lack of census detail and official vital records can make genealogy difficult. Your immigrant ancestor may seem out of reach. Explore sources and techniques to overcome that barrier with RELIC’s Don Wilson. Register online, by phone at 703-792-8380, or at relic2@pwcgov.org. |
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USING TOPO MAPS AND AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS
IN YOUR RESEARCH
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If you can show exactly where your ancestors lived and worked and the landscape around them, it can be a very effective way to recreate their lives.
RELIC’s DIGITAL ARCHIVES has links to detailed maps of Prince William County that can be used in this way. One of the best maps is the 1904 Army Maneuver Grounds, which not only shows roads and streams, but contour elevations, farm paths, dwellings, schools, churches, mills, and the names of residents. It also indicates what crops were grown in each field and which lots were forested. It covers a good portion of western Prince William between Manassas, Haymarket, and Bristow. It’s too bad we don’t have such a map for the other parts of the county.
We do have a similar map, a photocopy from the Library of Congress, from 1861-62, though not online. It shows much of the county’s eastern and southern portions but fades out in the neighborhood of Gainesville (RELIC map case, drawer 2, Control 108822 in our catalog).
The U.S. Geological Survey has prepared topographic maps of Prince William County since the 1890s at a scale of 1:125,000. Since the 1920s, their maps have contained more detail, with a scale of 1:24,000. Today, those maps for the entire United States can be freely downloaded at ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview.
The U.S. government has also sponsored aerial photography since the 1930s. Prince William was part of a fly-over survey of northern Virginia in the spring of 1937 by the Department of Agriculture. Those photos were printed in large albums available at RELIC and the Circuit Court Clerk’s office. Several years ago, the county scanned those photos and added them to a layer of our County Mapper. You can research a current address and see what it looked like in 1937 or any of the other years scanned between 1954 and 2021.
A commercial firm – Historial Aerials – also provides access to many other aerial views nationwide. You can enter a place name or street address, and Historic Aerials will take you to that location and list the years for which they have images. For example, they have at least 19 layers of maps for Prince William County between 1962 and 2018. They have images of Manassas as early as 1949. Watermarks protect each online image, but they will sell you an image without that obstruction.
If you are looking for an appropriate geographic image, the RELIC staff will be pleased to assist you.
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You can now make appointments for virtual or in-person visits with Don Wilson, "The Tree Doctor." We can set up an hour appointment to discuss and dive into your brick wall research problem. Call by phone at 703–792–8380 or email relic2@pwcgov.org to set up a time.
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Questions and comments are always welcome.
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