This atlas was published in the Kingdom of Saxony in the year 1899 by the map-making firm of Velhagen and Klasing and their master-cartographer Albert Scobel, under the direction of Richard Andree (1835-1912), chief of the Geographische Institut of Leipzig. The fourth fully-revised edition after fully twenty years of focused labor, it represented the highest level of cartographic art and fidelity in the world at that time, and these wonderful maps may be enjoyed as much for their beauty as for their usefulness. The original volume was a large 18 by 12 inches, with most maps spanning two pages, engraved and colored with marvelous skill. Geneabase has carefully rendered the Andree's Atlas maps and their index to computer scanned graphic files.
Also included is a handy utility to attach, organize and save all your descriptions and images for any number of places.

The maps in this collection are about one-fifth of all those included in Andrees Allgemeiner Handatlas, 4th edition, and they include those maps portraying north-central Europe, as is today comprised of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, Luxemburg, and parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Russia. The maps of old Germany are the most detailed maps in the atlas, and these are viewed at from 2 to 6 miles per inch on a typical 17" PC monitor.

Our software allows locating any of about 50,000 northern and central European place-names on its proper map with just a few keystrokes. The user may create their own database of descriptions and pictures of places of interest for easy access.

The maps in this collection (like Part 1, about a fifth of the atlas) portray eastern Europe and northern Asia, as is today comprised of Austria, Hungary, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Byelorus, Ukraine, the former Soviet Republics of Asia, and parts of Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, and many Asian countries. The maps of Austria-Hungary are among the most detailed maps in the atlas, and these are viewed at from 2 to 6 miles per inch on a typical 17" PC monitor.

Our software allows locating any of about 45,000 eastern European and Russian place-names on its proper map with just a few keystrokes. The user may create their own database of descriptions and pictures of places of interest for easy access.

75 beautiful full-screen maps are here available for FREE download, scanned at 300ppi (Ireland) and 200dpi (Britain) for a consistent 7 miles to the inch display.
Some Irish and Scottish counties were renamed in the 1920's, and then in 1974, Britain was completely reorganized into new counties, which have been further modified since then. One must have an antique atlas to find the ancient traditional counties, a key to understanding British history. The user may create their own database of descriptions and pictures of places of interest for easy access.
Unlike the other atlases above, this freeware is NOT indexed.

1899 was a peak year in the immigration to North America from central and eastern Europe. Nearly every Ellis Island immigration record gives a place of origin. There is no better source for identifying an obscure European origin than this atlas.

The map of central Europe has changed immensely since 1899, due to the World Wars and many political revolutions. For the century before the 1st World War, however, Europe was fairly stable. The political units and their frontiers, from great empires down to minor principalities, were fixed after the fall of Napoleon, and just a few changes occurred in the next century, notably as the German states coalesced into successive federations. But even as the German Empire, led notably by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, amassed territory, it usually recognized the borders of the older states after they were annexed into the Reich. Note as well that most of central Europe, as reconstituted by the Prussian, Austrian and Russian powers after Napoleon's downfall, closely resembled its former 18th century configuration. Many of the homelands of early colonial American immigrants, such as Hesse, Hanover, and the Rhine Palatinate (die Pfalz, or Rheinpfalz), will still be found on the 1899 maps, although please note that the "right-bank" of the Rhine Palatinate (Mannheim, Heidelburg, and Karlsruhe) was annexed by Baden in 1803, while the "left-bank" retained the name of Pfalz under the rule of Bavaria.

Ultimately, the German Reich lost almost half its territory to Poland, France, Denmark and Russia. Almost all of the places in the ceded territories have new names, or the spellings have been changed beyond recognition. Likewise, Austria-Hungary was split into several new nations. The earlier German place-names within these vast territories can only be rediscovered by searching an antique indexed atlas such as Andrees.

By 1899, Poland already had been gone from the map for a century, having been wholly swallowed up by its neighbors Prussia (who held Danzig and Breslau), Austria-Hungary (Cracow), and Russia (Warsaw).

As for Scandinavia and the Baltic regions, please remember that Sweden and Norway were united under the Bernadotte dynasty of Swedish kings from 1815 until 1905, when Norway became an independent kingdom. Recall also that Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were parts of the Russian Empire until 1918 (as was the landlocked province of Poland). Finland was an integral part of Sweden until 1809, and the place-names shown here are often the old Swedish names. Iceland was then a Danish possession.

It is very important to note also that the Danish and Norwegian languages have undergone revision of their standard rules for spelling. Older spellings are shown on these maps.

The Balkan region also has gone through many changes. Slovenia, Croatia, Transylvania, and much of northeastern Italy were in 1899 part of Austria-Hungary, which also occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina. Albania and northern Greece were still in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), as was the newly autonomous Kingdom of Bulgaria.
Serbia, Romania, Greece, and Montenegro were small independent kingdoms.

Finally, family historians should recognize that places and their political and social histories are at least as important as vital dates and blood relationships in forming the context of any family history. We hope that this excellent CD-atlas will help you find a clearer sense of the origins of our German, Scandinavian, and Eastern European ancestors.

Bibliographic Note:

For your reference, please note that the source of these maps, as given on the atlas' title page, is:

ANDREES ALLGEMEINER HANDATLAS
in 126 Haupt- und 137 Nebenkarten nebst volständigen alphabetischen Namenverzeichnis.
Vierte, vollig, neubearbeitete und vermehrte Auflage.
Herausgegeben von A. Scobel.
Ausgeführt von den Geographischen Anstalt von Velhagen & Klasing in Leipzig.
Bielefeld und Leipzig.
Verlag von Velhagen und Klasing.
1899

Which translates into English as:

ANDREE'S GENERAL ATLAS
In 126 Main Maps with 137 Inset Maps, including a complete alphabetical index of place-names.
The fourth, complete, revised and enlarged edition.
Produced by A. Scobel.
Printed by the Geographic Firm of Velhagen & Klasing of Leipzig.
Bielefeld and Leipzig.
Velhagen & Klasing Press.
1899

A very substantial index was a part of this atlas, listing 180,000 place-names and their coordinates on the maps. About half of this index consists of an exhaustive list of German, Scandinavian, and eastern European place-names. We have included this to aid your research.

The software and the maps as presented here in digital form are under the copyright of Geneabase, Inc. None may be reproduced or printed for sale, or displayed or distributed on the Internet without explicit authorization.

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