Tracing your tree – using maps

When you've found an address where your ancestors used to live, it's natural to go and visit the place.
But unless your family is from one of the more 'up-market' parts of town, you're likely to come back disappointed, because the terraces and alleys where most of the population lived in Victorian times have long been swept away.
However, there's good news at the Local Studies Library, on the first floor of the Central Library, on Albion Street, because you'll find an excellent collection of maps and books about Hull.
There are also back-issues of the local newspapers, hundreds of photographs, illustrations, postcards, football programmes and much more.
The earlier maps are not so detailed, but from the 1850s onwards there is a fine collection of plans drawn to exact scale by the Ordnance Survey.
The most valuable set is the edition from the early 1890s, because they were published at a scale of 1 to 500 and show, every single house in the town, along with their alleys and entries and backyards – including the all-important privy.
A photocopy costs just 10p.
Also, as mentioned in last month's Hull in print, the Local Studies Library has recently brought out a CD-ROM priced £12.95, called 'Hull Through the Ages'.
It contains copies of many of the early maps and plans of Hull, which show the growth of streets, houses, churches and other buildings over the centuries.

For more information on any of the above, call the Local Studies Library on 300300.