Starting in 1867, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company created detailed maps of small towns and large cities in the United States in order to calculate premiums for fire insurance. Today these maps have a second life as a tool for genealogists. They describe the neighborhoods and homes where ancestors lived and imply nuanced stories about our ancestors’ lives. This session will cover:
1) a brief history of fire insurance maps
2) a step-by-step lesson about how to interpret the maps
3) where to find Sanborn maps
4) how to construct source citations for them
5) and particularly how to use the maps to spin your stories.

Jane Neff Rollins is a professional genealogist at Sherlock Combs Genealogy^®. In addition to having 25+ years of personal research experience, Rollins has attended many genealogy and forensic genealogy institutes. She has also translated/indexed Russian-language records for clients and online databases, and she has spoken at local, regional, national, and international genealogy conferences, including at many of the annual IAJGS conferences. Her writing has appeared in Avotaynu, NGS Magazine, and FGS Forum, among others. She is the recipient of the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ 2020 FORUM Writers Award.