German Atlas

For anyone researching their Prussian ancestors and who do not know where places were this is a great online map with a searchable index
Atlas des Deutschen Reichs: "An atlas of the German Empire - a UW-Madison Digital Resource \ / "

I had an ancestor that was born on Schaaken, E. Prussia and the only trace I could find in a modern Atlas was Schloß Schaaken, while it would be nice to have an ancestor that lived in a castle I was dubious about the location. This map from 1892 lists a place Schaaken that is only a short distance from where the rest of the family lived, much more likely. Interestingly it also shows Cranz, where most family lived, with 2 alternative names. I already knew it could be spelled Kranz and that it now has a Russian name, Selenogradzk, but here it was listed as Seebad Kranz (showing it was a holiday resort) and Kranzkuhren.









Cranz around 1900.

The map does not cover every small place, my village is not listed or shown on the map even though it has been here for 800 years, though in 1890 there would only of been about 10 houses here.