Genealogists spend a lot of time learning how to research people, but what about researching places?
How do you actually research a place? Where do you start when you know nothing about a location? How do you decide what information matters for your family history?
This post walks you through a practical genealogical research process for studying the places your ancestors lived. You can adapt this process to your needs, whether you’re quickly gathering sources for a specific ancestor or conducting in-depth research for a family history book.
This post was originally published in July 2023 and last updated on 9 October 2025 to provide more detailed advice.
Why Researching Places Matters
In my post, Why Genealogists Must Research Places, Not Just People, I identified five reasons why it is important to study places that your ancestors lived in. These were to:
- guide you to the best sources
- help you interpret sources accurately
- discover the historical context behind life events
- understand how boundaries and place names changed over time, and
- provide knowledge to enrich your storytelling.
How you approach place research depends on which of these reasons currently matters most to you.
Before You Start: Clarify Your Approach
Your research approach will depend on several factors:
Your immediate purpose. Are you searching for sources to break through a brick wall? Building background for a blog post or story? Creating a reference file for future research?
Your existing knowledge. Is this place completely new to you, or do you already have some familiarity with it?
Your research questions. Do you have specific questions to answer (such as “How did lacemakers live in 18th century Nottingham?”), or are you gathering general information?
Your available time. How much effort do you want to invest right now?
The scope of your study. Are you researching an entire country, a county or state, a town or village, or a more specific location like a neighbourhood?
Note: This post does not cover house histories, as the research process is very different.
The Research Process
This eight-step process provides a framework you can adapt to your needs. You don’t have to complete every step at once, and you can return to add more information as new questions arise.
Step 1: Establish your objectives
Give your research some scope by defining why you’re researching this place and what outcomes you need.
Examples:
- Do you need to identify the main repositories that hold relevant sources?
- Are you familiarising yourself with a place you’ve never encountered before?
- Do you need background information for a specific time period?
- Are you answering a targeted research question about living conditions, occupations, or social circumstances?
Clear objectives prevent you from getting lost in interesting but irrelevant details.
Step 2: Gather background information about your family
Understanding your family’s connection to a place focuses your research efforts.
Create a summary that includes:
- Which ancestors lived in this place
- Time period (earliest and latest known dates)
- Religions, if known
- Specific locations of life events (births, marriages, deaths, residences)
- Occupations, if known
- Literacy levels, if known
- Addresses or land ownership, if known
- A list of all places mentioned in sources for these family members.
Create a timeline listing all events for your family members in this location. Add to this timeline as you gather more information throughout your research.
This family-focused information helps you identify which aspects of the place’s history matter most for your research.
Step 3: Gather basic information and a map
Start with Wikipedia for a quick overview.
Why Wikipedia works as a starting point:
Wikipedia entries for places include a useful information box listing the country, region, administrative divisions, flag, official languages, ethnic groups, religions, government structure, and area. For locations where boundaries have changed (such as English counties), the box provides information about these changes.
The main article covers the place’s history, geography, and landmarks. While not always 100% accurate, Wikipedia gives you a feel for the place. You may find photographs of churches your ancestors attended or landmarks they knew. Wikipedia photographs usually have few copyright restrictions, making them valuable for family history projects.
Tip: Type “Wikipedia [placename]” into a search engine. For example, “Wikipedia Nottinghamshire.”
Alternative starting point: Use the FamilySearch Places tool. Type in your place name to find it on the map and get basic information about name variations and related places (such as registration districts and poor law unions). Check under Research Links, as it may have a link to the relevant Wikipedia page.
Step 4: Consult a general genealogy source
Move to sources created specifically for genealogists.
The FamilySearch Wiki provides pages for each country with maps, research guidance, and information about how jurisdictions changed over time.
The FamilySearch Wiki focuses on genealogical sources rather than physical geography and general history. Check the record types listed on the right side of each place page. Look especially at:
- Occupations
- Newspapers
- Cemeteries
- Emigration & Immigration
- Parishes
- Poor Law
- Social organisations
These categories often provide useful historical and contextual information beyond standard birth, marriage, and death records.
Step 5: Gather more specific information
After establishing the basics, fill in gaps with more targeted research.
Cyndi’s List lists websites organised by location. For example, see the list for Poland. These location-specific websites provide more detailed information for your research.
Follow links that relate to your specific objectives and your family’s circumstances in that place.
Step 6: Conduct a literature review
A literature review involves identifying, reading, and summarising published information about your place and topics of interest. A literature review helps you understand what’s already known about a place and identifies potential sources of useful information.
If you don’t want to conduct a full review now, at least create a list of relevant literature for future investigation. Include both online and offline sources, such as books available only in libraries.
Step 7: Compile a source list
Create a list of sources to explore, including any discovered in the previous steps. You don’t have to examine them all immediately. This list can inform your research plan.
Don’t limit yourself to genealogy sources. Consider:
- History books (local, regional, state, national)
- Government websites and publications
- Newspapers (excellent for social history and events)
- Maps and plans
- Gazetteers
- Photographs and postcards
- One Place Studies
- Heritage and historical studies
- Demographic reports
- Statistical reports and census data
- Tourist information and travel guides
- Historical society or genealogical society publications and journals
- Facebook groups and online forums
- Blogs and personal websites
- YouTube videos
- Conference presentations
- Documentaries
Example from my research:
I found a heritage study that provided detailed information about a pub owned by one of my London ancestors. The study included a list of all known owners (confirming his ownership), maps and plans of the site, and descriptive historical information about the property and neighbourhood. I would never have found this information through standard genealogical sources.
Step 8: Visit the place if possible
Nothing replaces firsthand experience of a location.
When you visit, walk the streets your ancestors walked. Take photographs. Visit local libraries, museums, and historical societies. Talk to the locals. Notice the geography, the distances between places, the feel of the area.
These visits often generate new research questions and insights you couldn’t gain from sources alone.
Practical tips for effective place research
You don’t have to do it all at once. Gather information that’s currently useful. Document it well, then add to it later when you have new questions.
You don’t need to know everything about a place. Focus your research on the timeframes your family lived there, but also study the periods before in case you trace the family back further.
Focus on what matters to your family. Your place research should look different from a standard place description in Wikipedia. Target topics and issues relevant to your ancestors.
Examples:
- When researching my 5x great-grandfather Captain John Townson in Sydney, I focused on the Parramatta area from approximately 1790 to 1830, specifically studying the lives of convicts and army officers rather than all of Sydney’s history.
- For my tobacconist ancestors in 1800s Sydney, I researched the specific neighbourhoods where they lived and operated their businesses, and I studied the tobacco industry during their specific timeframe.
You can always expand your research later when new issues arise or when you extend your family tree.
What information should you gather?
The information you need depends on your purpose and objectives. This checklist provides a starting point:
Geographic and administrative:
- Location and adjoining places
- Current and previous place names
- Current and previous boundaries
- How the land was divided for different purposes (such as Irish townlands, parishes, districts, regions, Poor Law Union districts, electoral regions, registration districts, counties for civil registration)
Religious and cultural:
- List and addresses of churches and cemeteries
- Major institutions (schools, workhouses, hospitals, prisons)
- Dominant religions and religious minorities
- Languages spoken and cultural groups
- Social norms, societal roles, cultural traditions, and class structures
Political and economic:
- Government systems, power structures, political ideologies
- Economic conditions (trade, industry, labour systems)
- Technology and its impact on historical developments
Historical context:
- Significant historical events affecting your family’s timeframe
- When civil registration began (commencement of birth, death and marriage certificates)
- Wars, famines, epidemics, and natural disasters
- Migration patterns
Research resources:
- Local libraries and archives
- Other repositories
- Your source list from Step 7
How to document place research effectively will be covered in another post.
Start Small and Build it up
Researching places is not just about creating a locality guide for your files. It’s an active, ongoing research process that deepens your understanding of your ancestors’ lives.
This process approach means you can start small and build your knowledge over time. You don’t need to know everything before you begin searching for sources. But as you learn more about the places your ancestors lived, you’ll ask better research questions, interpret sources more accurately, and tell richer family stories.
The key is to start somewhere. Even if it’s just with a Wikipedia article and a timeline of your family’s events in that place.
Free download ‘How to Guide’ coming soon
Useful Resources for Place Research
- FamilySearch Wiki
- Cyndi’s List
- Family Locket podcast series about locality guides. Here is the link to Part 1
For more of my articles about research methods for family history, go to the Research Methods page.
For more of my articles on improving your search techniques, go to the Research page.
About the Author
Danielle Lautrec is a genealogy educator, researcher, and author of The Good Genealogist. With qualifications in history, family history, and historical archaeology, she teaches for the Society of Australian Genealogists.
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