Library Guides: German 2510 Guide to Resources: The Cultural History of Germans in Missouri: Maps & Demographics

Maps & Guidebooks

David Rumsey Map Collection
This is a remarkable collection of digitized maps and related materials. You can browse by location, theme, keywords.
David Rumsey Georferencer
The Georeferencer allows you to overlay and compare different maps of the same area, matching the geo-coordinates.
Missouri Maps & Views from the Library of Congress
A variety of panoramic views and maps from the collections of the Library of Congress
State Historical Society Map Collection
Missouri County Platbooks
County maps and plat books of towns and cities--detailed maps of buildings, their uses, and owners.

The links above take you to several online collections of maps, but of course we also have many in print. These are listed in Discover@MU and are tagged by the place or region covered.

Demographic Data

We the People: an Atlas of America's Ethnic Diversity
Call Number: LARGE G1201.E1 A4 1988
Although now a little dated, this atlas has nice maps and background information on various ethnic groups in the United States.

Historical Statistics of the United States
This database pulls together historical census data. It is very rich, but a little complicated to use. When you enter the database, you'll see a table of contents in the left sidebar. Click on A. Population, then on Ad. International migration. Here you'll find a list of tables and also an essay on international migration explaining the data.Click on A. Population, then on Introduction to see an essay on Race and Ethnicity: Definitions and Measurement. Note that the data collected by the census has changed over time. The 1850 census was the first to ask place of birth. Foreign-born parents have been identified only since 1870 and a question on ethnic origins was added to the census in 1980.
Free account can be created for personalization.
Maximum Users: Unlimited
Truncation: Not supported
Social Explorer
Social Explorer provides current and historical U.S. social data indicators from public and proprietary sources across demography, economy, health, politics, education, religion, crime, and more, at multiple geographic levels. All data are curated, documented, organized, and processed for ease of use.
HeritageQuest Online
A comprehensive database of American genealogical sources rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories, and finding aids. This has the actual census enumerations, listing each household, through 1940. Go to Search, then Census, choose a year, and then browse by state, county, township. You can "walk the streets" to see who lived where, their occupation, language, etc. The information gathered varies from census to census. HeritageQuest also has past city directories, local histories, immigration and military records, and more.
The collection consists of six core data sets: U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 through 1930, genealogy and local history books, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), Revolutionary War Records, Freedman’s Bank Records and LexisNexis U.S. Serial Set records. Access provided by MOREnet.
Truncation: Truncation * Wildcard ?
Help: https://www.ancestryheritagequest.com/HQA/ResearchAids
Search Guide: https://www.ancestrycdn.com/aainstcommons/2026/researchAids/ancestry-anne-top-10-search-tips.pdf

Search Tips and Terms

When searching for maps, it's often helpful to search by the county name as a subject heading, for example:
Gasconade County (MO) maps.

To find guidebooks or accounts of travels, do a subject search combining a place or topic with the sub-heading "description and travel".
For example: Missouri description and travel.

Some useful subject headings or search terms:
ethnology
ethnic identity
population
Immigrants
land settlement
names of specific ethnic groups, e.g. Germans--Missouri or German Americans