Interactive tool
Latitude and Longitude Finder
Find latitude and longitude coordinates for places connected to your family history. Use it to document ancestral villages, cemeteries, churches, farms, residences, and migration locations more precisely in your genealogy notes.
Coordinates
Latitude
Longitude
Use coordinates as supporting detail alongside the original place name, source record, date, person, and event type. This is especially useful when documenting cemeteries, ancestral villages, farms, churches, migration routes, or places with similar names.
How coordinates help with family history research
Genealogy records often use place names that are incomplete, duplicated, translated, misspelled, or no longer in common use. Coordinates give you an extra reference point when documenting where an ancestor lived, married, died, was buried, or moved from.
This tool should not replace careful source-based genealogy research. Instead, use it to support your notes after you have checked that the mapped place matches the record, jurisdiction, cemetery, parish, or local area you are researching.
Document cemetery locations
Coordinates can make it easier to record exact cemetery, graveyard, or memorial locations when a place name is unclear or shared by several nearby sites.
Record ancestral villages and farms
Older records often mention villages, farms, parishes, or local place names that are hard to identify later. Saving coordinates gives your research notes a more precise location reference.
Map migration paths
Latitude and longitude can help compare birth, marriage, death, residence, and immigration locations when studying how a family moved over time.
How to use coordinates in genealogy notes
Step 1: Search the historical place name
Start with the place name from a record, certificate, census entry, church book, obituary, or family note. If the old place name has changed, try the modern name as well.
Step 2: Verify the location before saving it
Coordinates are only useful when they point to the correct place. Compare the result with nearby towns, parishes, cemeteries, counties, or known family locations before adding it to your research.
Step 3: Copy the coordinates into your notes
Save the latitude and longitude together with the source record, event type, person, date, and any uncertainty about the location. After recording the location, you can use a printable family tree template or the Family Tree Maker to organize the people connected to that place.
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Family Tree Templates
Browse printable templates for documenting family history research.
Frequently asked questions
Why would a genealogist need latitude and longitude coordinates?
Coordinates help record exact locations for cemeteries, ancestral homes, villages, farms, churches, and migration research when a written place name alone is not precise enough.
Should I use coordinates instead of place names in genealogy notes?
No. Use coordinates as supporting detail. Keep the written place name, jurisdiction, source citation, date, and historical context so the location remains understandable later. Many genealogy tools have a possibility to add coordinates.
Can coordinates help with old or changed place names?
Yes, but only after verification. If a historical village, parish, or farm name has changed, coordinates can help preserve the modern map location connected to that older record.
Are map coordinates always accurate for family history research?
No. Search results can point to the wrong place when names are duplicated or boundaries changed. Always compare the map result with the original record and nearby known locations.