01 November 2021

Final Map Update for 2021

The final map update for 2021 has been posted and includes updates and/or additions to 1,578 locations. 

As work moves forward to add historical geographical context around where Germans lived in Russia, the most noticeable change this time is that Russian Poland (Congress Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Vistula Krai, Mittelpolen, etc.) has been broken out into its respective Russian provinces (governorates) as they were at the end of the Russian Empire. The same procedure was followed as was used for re-aligning the provinces of South Russia but this time using the borders on geo-referenced maps from 1820 and 1879, after Russian Poland had been fully incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1832. The borders for the Orenburg Province in the east Volga Tartary were also appropriately re-aligned and districts updated. More settlements were added to western Russia as well in the province of Podolia in the southwestern krai.  Most of these came from records and not maps. It is important to follow the humans and record where they lived, even if cartographers and ethnographers didn’t put them on their maps because there were not enough of them. They were still there. Cities with large urban German populations recorded in the 1897 census were added with their parishes in their respective provinces. These are more or less stakes in the ground for future research as more locations will be added around them in time. 
 
Kingdom of Poland 1820 (Source: David Rumsey Map Collection)

Kingdom of Poland 1879 after it had been incorporated into the Russian Empire fully.
This is from a larger map entitled "South-West Russia. Showing the Extent of the Kingdom of Poland previous to its partition in 1772." (Source: David Rumsey Map Collection)

In the process of isolating groups of settlements that need updates to data regarding
their province or district. It's tedious work made much easier by technology.

Russian Poland before and after.

Next up will be fixing the provinces in the Caucasus and Asiatic Russia. I anticipate the next map update will be ready mid-to-late January. Research will continue while I also take some time to do a little year-end reflection, writing, yard work, and a few backroad trips now that the heat has finally broken for the season here in the southwest. It has been a long summer.

Map as of 31 October 2021.


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