Tennessee County Maps and Atlases

Understanding history and the use of maps and gazetteers are essential for tracing early Tennessee families. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has a fine collection of maps, including early surveyors’ maps and civil district maps. Helpful publications include:

Coggins, Allen R. Place Names of the Smokies (Louisville, Tenn.: the author). Offers information for east Tennessee towns and sites.
Fullerton, Ralph O. Place Names of Tennessee. Bulletin No. 73. Nashville: State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation, Division of Geology, 1974. Arranged alphabetically by counties and, within the counties, alphabetically by placename. Depicts county outline with geological survey overview.
McBride, Robert M., and Owen Meredith, eds. Eastin Morris’ Tennessee Gazetteer, 1834, Matthew Rhea’s Map of the State of Tennessee, 1832. Nashville: Gazetteer Press, 1971. A valuable guide to Tennessee’s early history.

Mountain Press produced a map in 1996 showing the various native tribes in Tennessee and early white settlements and forts. Entitled Aboriginal Map of Tennessee, it is available from that press located in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.

The McClung Collection at the East Tennessee Historical Center (see Archives, Libraries, and Societies) includes a set of maps for the state dating from 1777. This series, drawn by Rene Jordan, depicts the development of east Tennessee over twenty years of county organization and jurisdictional changes (see Manuscripts).

The TSLA holdings include historical and current maps, including the U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps. It maintains maps of some Mountain District grants and Ocoee District plat books..

Rotating Formation Tennessee Boundary County Maps

(Maps made with the use AniMap Plus County Boundary Historical AniMap 3.0 and with the Permission of the Goldbug Company)

County Formation years
1777	1779	1783	1784	1785	1786	1787	1788	1790	1792	1794	1795	1796	1797	1798
1799	1801	1803	1806	1807	1809	1817	1819	1821	1823	1824	1835	1836	1837	1838
1839	1840	1842	1843	1844	1845	1846	1849	1850	1852	1854	1855	1856	1857	1866
1867	1868	1869	1870	1871	1872	1873	1875	1877	1879	1885	1895	1903	1920	1960
1985
County Census Years
1790	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930
Census Year with previous Census Year overlayed:
1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930
Census Year with Modern Map overlayed:
1790	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1920	1930

Map Abbreviations
unorg. = unorganized g. = gained w. = with fr. = from atmt. = attachment exch = exchanged nca.= non county area ch. = changed An - Anderson Bed - Bedford Ben - Benton Ble - Bledsoe Blo - Blount Br - Bradley Cam - Campbell Can - Cannon Cbn - Claiborne Chs - Chester Cly - Clay Coc - Cocke	Cof - Coffee Cr - Crockett Crl - Carroll Ctm - Cheatham Ctr - Carter Cu - Cumberland Da - Davidson Dec - Decatur Di - Dickson DK - Dekalb Dy - Dyer Fa - Fayette Fe - Fentress Fr - Franklin Gib - Gibson Gil - Giles Gra - Grainger Gre - Greene Gru - Grundy Han - Hancock Haw - Hawkins	Hay - Haywood Hbn - Hamblen Hdm - Hardeman Hi - Hickman Ho - Houston Hrn - Hardin Hry - Henry Hsn - Henderson Htn - Hamilton Hu - Humphreys Jac - Jackson Je - Jefferson Jo - Johnson Jon - Jones Kn - Knox Lak - Lake Lau - Lauderdale Law - Lawrence Le - Lewis Li - Lincoln Lo - Loudon	Mac - Macon Mad - Madison Mau - Maury McM - McMinn McN - McNairy Me - Meigs Moo - Moore Mor - Morgan Mrn - Marion Mro - Monroe Msl - Marshall Mty - Montgomery Ob - Obion Ov - Overton Pe - Perry Pi - Pickett Po - Polk Pu - Putnam Rh - Rhea Roa - Roane Rob - Robertson	Ru - Rutherford Sc - Scott Seq - Sequatchie Sev - Sevier Sh - Shelby Sm - Smith St - Stewart Sul - Sullivan Sum - Sumner Ti - Tipton Tr - Trousdale Uci - Unicoi Unn - Union VB - Van Buren War - Warren Was - Washington Way - Wayne We - Weakley Wh - White Wls - Wilson Wms - Williamson

Tennessee County D.O.T. Road and Highway Maps

PLEASE READ!! These maps are downloadable and are in PDF format. The main use of these are the locations of all known cemeteries in a county and of course the various roads and church locations

Tennessee maps can be purchased from the State of Tennessee, Department of Conservation, Division of Geology, Nashville, TN 37203. General Highway Maps for Tennessee counties are available from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Bureau of Planning and Development, Planning Division, Nashville, TN 37219, and from respective counties.

To View the Map: Just click the Image to view the map online. In order to make the Image size as small as possible they were save on the lowest resolution. If you order an image they are printed at the highest resolution. (Images are between 500k and 1.5 meg so loading may be slow if using a dial-up connection)

Tennessee Atlases

Disclaimer: All maps are free to use for your own genealogical purposes and may not be reproduced for resale or distribution

These are scanned from the original copies so you can see the states and counties as our ancestors saw them over a hundred years ago. Some maps years (not all) have cities, railroads, P.O. locations, township outlines and other features useful to the avid genealogist in North America.

All formats are pdf. Images are between 500k and 1.5 meg so allow a few moments to load if you are using a dial-up connection. It may take up to 6 months to complete the website for all years available so check back often for daily updates. See Disclaimer Below.


1795 Tennessee	1814 Tennessee	1822 Tennessee	1845 Tennessee	`


1795 United States	1814 United States	United States