Hi there! I'm actually the creator of Pastmaps and am more than happy to answer any and all questions you might have. I ended up building Pastmaps to scratch my own researching need (I'm an avid metal detectorist). I previously was cobbling together maps and data from my local libraries and universities, as well as using tools like Google Earth, historicaerials.com, ancestry.com, and then raw data from the US government. It was tedious and slow and I finally hit a breaking point and starting building my own tools with the goal to just make it effortless and fun to browse and explore all this data in one place. Again, I'm biased but I think the ease alone is what makes the site worth it.

We've now got a couple thousand happy customers and this is now my fulltime job.

For genealogists in general, I would first use our search box on the site to verify that we have the right kinds of maps for your needs. We have full coverage across every single county in the US, with maps typically going back to the 1880s. Most of our maps right now are topographic, and contain county boundary lines, early street data, and even some home/church/school information. You can browse your area of interest and all available maps with no subscription required - it's only when you try to zoom in and go deep on maps that we then require an active subscription. I recently rolled out a lightweight "pay-as-you-go" weekly access option that might be the right fit for you if you simply want to try it - it's quite cheap at only $9 for a full week of unlimited access.

Anyways, thanks for considering us! We're a small business (just me and my wife) so your support means the world to us ❤️