The County Map File located at the Georgia Archives consists of agency maps (mainly the Georgia Department of Transportation) and maps created by private citizens and companies. Most maps contain information about roads, rivers/watercourses, county seat and towns/cities, and railroads. However some maps also include property owner's names, land districts, Georgia Militia Districts, poor house, schools, churches, cemeteries or graveyards, businesses, smaller community names, census districts, school districts, and georgraphic information about the region. County and state boundary changes may also be found on some maps.

Due to the loss/fragility of maps during the early periods of Georgia's history, the earliest date for many of the county maps are the 1860s. In the 1850s and 1860s the Georgia General Assembly paid for maps to be rerecorded or recreated due to the fragility or loss of an earlier copy. Examples: Georgia Laws 1851-52 page 17 and Georgia Laws 1865 page 325.

A majority of these maps are not available online or on our website and must be viewed during our normal research hours. However some maps maybe found on our website, www.georgiaarchives.org, under the "Virtual Vault" tab. The collection is on the second page and is called "County Maps." In this finding aid if you find a notation with the map that states "(available online...)" with a cmf number this is where the map is located. The Georgia Department of Transportation website also contains many of their maps, so you may also wish to review their collection.

Most of our county maps were created by state agencies (example: Georgia Department of Transportation) and can be reproduced by the Georgia Archives or researchers for research and/or exhibition purposes. However, some maps, created by private indiviuals cannot be reproduced by researchers and/or the Georgia Archives. To order reproductions and apply for permission to publish, please see the Visual Materials Policy page, https://www.georgiaarchives.org/research/visual_materials_policy .